I caught up with Michael Lauster, Managing Director at Maha Australia and New Zealand, at the Brisbane Truck Show. they had a range of workshop equipment on display with the highlight being a Scania electric truck (first one in the country) suspended by their wireless column lifts.
“We’re employed by the manufacturer as a subsidiary of the manufacturer,” explained Lauster. “We deal direct. We make the equipment, we sell it, we install it. We train the customers how to use it, and then we’re there every year servicing and maintaining with our own full time employed technicians.”
There were several workshop equipment suppliers with displays on the main convention centre floor, so I asked about competitors in the market and what made Maha products different.
“We’re the biggest manufacturer testing equipment around the globe, locally in the heavy vehicle industry, we consider ourselves a market leader,” responded Lauster.
“There are lots of competitors, but we’re the only ones that sell direct. Government agencies in Australia are using Maha at their sites; Queensland and New South Wales, South Australia Northern Territory. We also do government sites in New Zealand and pacific islands. All using testing equipment which well known for durability and reliability.”
“We also cater to the corner diesel workshop in Mackay right through to ComfortDelGro buses in Sydney, their biggest site runs 600 buses with our equipment. K&S Freighters and Scania dealerships are customers. We just built a new Scania dealership in Sydney and we just finished retrofitting various dealerships in Melbourne, Kewdale in Perth and Wingfield in Adelaide.”
Looking at the column lifts, they all looked the same. I need wireless technology had made them more attractive to workshop operators, so I asked what made Maha equipment so successful.
“The column lifting equipment is completely battery operated and are quite unique because they use a ball race rather than a hydraulic ram. Very energy efficient, so we get three times the amount of lifting cycles than our competitors using hydraulic rams. We also have a solid steel i-beam on the mobile column lift which lets us lift higher with longer tynes as well.”
“In some equipment, our competitors use screws, which is quite high friction. This is a ball bearing race on a worm drive is really energy efficient. And also lets you lift the load a millimetre at a time. When you’re doing a gearbox or diff, it’s extremely valuable. Generally with the hydraulic columns you need to rest on the locks, and then you to down, you have to go up first which isn’t always helpful.”
Suspension shakers and brake rollers are a more common sight in workshops over the last decade. An emerging trend is load simulation when brake testing. Lauster explained that many countries around the world are requiring the brakes on heavy vehicles to be tested with a simulated load.
“About four or five years ago we saw the evolution of load simulation. So that applies a simulated load to the testing axle. It’s absolutely invaluable for diagnosis purposes because as we know, a truck doesn’t drive down the road empty.”
“The load simulation is actually legislation in New Zealand. So you have to test the axle at 60% of capacity. Some of the other countries like Sweden and Switzerland, it’s up over 80%. Here in Australia we only test them as they were empty, so we’re not testing a loaded axle. A lot the private enterprise workshops are now seeking load simulation. Over 50% of our machines that we sell now have over simulation capability. And we strongly think that one day that will come in Australia as legislation as well. It’s the safest way to test the truck.”
It was the end of day one and the crowds were still heaving, so I asked Lauster about his impressions of the show so far.
“Phenomenal, for us it was a raging success. Having the truck up in the air, it’s getting a lot of attention. Our brand is quite well recognised in the commercial industry so we’ve been getting a lot of people through the stand. It’s been fantastic! We really love Brisbane Truck Show; it’s the best one on our calendar.”
