Epiroc reaches a new milestone with the hydraulic breaker completing 60 years – a celebration of vision and craftsmanship of its forefathers. What was once simply an idea in the German city of Essen six decades ago, became a breakthrough product used across the construction and mining industries globally.
Originally developed by Krupp Berco Bautechnik, the rig-mounted hydraulic breaker was patented in 1963. The first machine HM 400 was a hit at the Hannover fair in 1967. From that time onwards, more than 2,000 units were sold.
Big on time, small on cost
The breaker was exclusively designed to save time, eventually becoming a cost-effective solution in the construction industry. The demolition and mining operations at that time was all about increasing labor, time, and costs as the pneumatic tools were widely in use. But the hydraulic breaker was a real game-changer as one was enough to replace several pneumatic tools. It was soon known to be a huge time saver that comparatively costed little.
A timeless breakthrough
The hydraulic breaker revolutionized the entire construction and mining industry, and today, they become a part of the standard fleet anywhere, be it a small or large-scale project.
“Epiroc hydraulic breakers are still the market leader in most countries around the globe. With hundreds of brands in the industry today, the hydraulic breaker still offers a time-saving and cost-effective solution for demolition, utilities, rock excavation and many more applications. And of course, the breaker was only the start of the development of other attachment tools such as cutters, pulverizers, grapples, shears, magnets, crushers, screeners etc.”
explains Gordon Hambach, Head of Strategic Marketing for hydraulic attachment tools.
Three different names, same strong values
In 2002 Krupp Berco Bautechnik was acquired by the Swedish Atlas Copco Group. In 2018, Atlas Copco announced its split from Epiroc. While the former continued focusing on industrial customers, Epiroc took the lead on mining and construction. Following this announcement, the hydraulic breakers remained with Epiroc, along with geotechnical and rock drilling tools, underground and surface mining equipment, and related service.
The future, connected
The development is ongoing and in 2020 hydraulic breakers went digital. Hydraulic Attachment Tools Connectivity or HATCON is designed to be an advanced level fleet management system, where monitoring operating hours, location and service intervals of your tools happens in a few taps across devices – phones, tablets or computers.
The data from HATCON provides a new level of control where utilization is evenly distributed, optimizing transport and increasing uptime with pre-planned service stops has never been easier.
An important groundbreaking advancement comes with the GPS-function, powering equipment with robust anti-theft system.
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