HBC-radiomatic: tech forged based on professionalism and sacrifice

'The customer is to charge', is the maxim that HBC-radiomatic has implemented in recent years is that the ways to personalize each of thousands of systems which markets the company is virtually infinite, with the express view of the customer. There is a fact that, unlike many other competitors, allows you to get it: more than 90% of the components of radio control systems are of own production. From the construction, the injected by mold and machining of plastic parts, through the development and equipment of sinkers, until the final assembly of the equipment, everything is product ' made by HBC'. All this with a centralized policy, and it is that everything comes from its factory in the small town in the South of Germany. "The company policy is that everything goes here." "It is the only way we can control the entire process", says Oliver Meister, head of communication of HBC-radiomatic.

If HBC-radiomatic have been growing in recent decades it has been thanks to the investment and the work of its r & d, which has allowed it to develop elements such as the thoroughly tested joystick HBC or the first automatic system of management of frequencieswhich allows to work without interference between the issuing and receiving apparatus.

HBC-radiomatic already covers all the markets, manufacturing depending on the specific application to take the command. The crane or tower crane are a market, because their radio frequency systems are already used in conveyor pallets in warehouses, cranes forest, in hydraulic concrete mowers, and even Swiss fire brigade who use them to perform simulations in training camps. In addition systems have proved their effectiveness in extreme conditions, such as for example those installed in the trasportadoras cranes of some of the telescopic antennas largest in the world in the Atacama desert, at 4,000 meters in the North of Chile. To do so had to prepare all systems to the special climatic conditions: height and extreme dryness, and an extreme difference in temperature between day and night.

One of the major additions in the controls manufactured by HBC-radiomatic in recent years has been the system iON or electronic key of turnover, which allows you to directly unscrew the configuration and put it in another issuer. The compromise is that within 24 hours you will have a new to replace it. This system allows the user do not waste time, and the work will not be be stopped at any time. Repair and technical service is precisely one of the most important sales arguments. It is based in the network of delegations and staff who know the operation of the system, and only in very specific occasions a technician has to move headquarters to solve the problem in the field. In fact all the staff in delegations and partners distributors has previously been instructed with courses carried out directly by HBC-radiomatic.

After receiving the order, and organize it for importance, begins printing the plate, with the corresponding plated, components are positioned and finally gets the piece in the oven of soldier. Each piece is then inspected and controlled. Sender and receiver will be made jointly, in order that everything is scheduled according to the correct frequency range.

Manufactured by HBC-radiomatic controls are intended to be easy to handle, and it is that rule cranes and machinery on the radio today is the order of the day in factories and modern logistics centres. Are they save cabled unnecessary, minimizing risk and increase productivity. The customization of the product is one of the hallmarks of the German mark, which leaves the customer's choice many elements: position of the buttons, colors, even incorporating a display. HBC-radiomatic currently has more than twenty basic versions of covers that may be changing.

The product star is still the Spectrum, whose standard model already has sold over 50,000 units in its 24 years of existence. Gradually new elements that give even more advantages have been added. This year has been added to the models A and B Spectrum an integrated LCD screen which shows all the data of the system. Depending on the programming you can know, for example, the weight that carries the crane, the degree of inclination, etc. This means greater safety and greater control by the operator.

If to the dozens of islands of work, both mechanical and electronic, do not need them one piece throughout the day is through a system of Organization planned to detail. These islands, where they work a maximum of two people, are organized so that each knows what his mission. None of the workers had to leave his job because missing a cable or a component. This is a circuit of spare manual that makes each operator at each time the piece that you need. "Each has responsibility, even that each package is with the book of instructions in the language that matches", nuanced director of HBC-radiomatic Iberian, Andreas Boje.

HBC-radiomatic is obsessed with quality, and therefore every week gathers groups workers to comment on and discuss the incidents that have been able to be emerging, and on which has already put them in background in several panels distributed across the enterprise. The fact is to leave nothing at the mercy of chance.

In a region where unemployment does not reach the 3%, it is difficult to find labor, and even more highly qualified. For this reason, years HBC-radiomatic way to young people who see their way of life in the electronics, allowing them inculcated from the outset its company philosophy. "If you take them from other companies, you do not know what they have learned, so we are sure that they know exactly our way of working," says Oliver Meister. Also in the commercial section staff is trained in headquarters, before carrying out its functions in the different delegations.

But training is not exclusively limited to internal staff. HBC-radiomatic has its own training centre to expand the knowledge of the also external professionals, and explain the technical systems of radio control basis, as well as the proper installation and the most important aspects of the maintenance.

Operational since 2004, the Spanish delegation of HBC-radiomatic is in full period of consolidation, with the aim to support in the Iberian Peninsula. "Our goal is to grow, but do so in a proportionate manner, because otherwise we could make mistakes that we have already seen committing to other companies," says the director of HBC - radiomatic Iberian. With headquarters in Cornellà de Llobregat (Barcelona), another medium to long term goal is to open another delegation in Madrid, in order to consolidate its presence in the Spanish market and work to fund the national market and introduced progressively in Portuguese.

HBC-radiomatic currently works with such clients as Liebherr, Hawe, Abus, Stahl and Jaso. Precisely for the cranes bridge of this last client has developed a safety communication integrated system for cranes tandem that allows several cranes operate synchronized.

Due to the economic situation worldwide is being see how elements such as price are playing when choosing the product, although project customization helps companies like HCB-radiomatic. "It is clear that elements such as price are fundamental, and more Spain, but the client discussed you much more price when it comes to a standard device, which not when you you are making one specifically for him", says Andreas Boje.

History, seal of guarantee

Founded in 1947, just after World War II, HBC-radiomatic emerged from nowhere in a totally destroyed city. A company that is now rose from the ashes of Crailsheim reference for any understood the world of the radio frequency. The two founders, Hubert & Brendel, met during the war, and from the outset RF took pride of place in the business of the company.

In 1950 they presented the Portafon, the first portable civil Handi's Germany, and ten years later, the company developed the first fully transistorized Handi teutonian nationwide. It was in 1963, when Hubert & Brendel, put into service the first system to distance-powered radio, a system of weather alarm at the Lake of Constance, which still remains in force.

It was in the mid 1960s when the entry into the world of cranes, was in 1968 when was made the first system of radio control HBC specific for this type of machines, and in which based much of its business.

In 1975 became the first team of flameproof RC, and four years later HBC-radiomatic introduced the first radio control equipment with control via microprocessors.

After release the first proportional team in the 1980s, in the 90's HBC-radiomatic began its great international expansion with offices in Czech Republic, France, USA, Spain, Italy and Switzerland. Also progress in terms of innovation and development in their systems, as for example the introduction in series of electronic key radiomatic iON in 2007, has allowed to make a very important qualitative and quantitative leap to the company. The expansion, with a new plant on the outskirts of Crailsheim, which houses part of the Electronics Division, and an increase in staff that doubles the from ten years ago, they are good example of this. "Today is a sound company with a single owner and we do not depend on any bank." "This gives us great stability", recognize with pride Oliver Meister and Andreas Boje.