Open-S Alliance has received an INTERMAT Innovation Award for its global open industry standard for automatic quick couplers for excavators. The 9th edition of the INTERMAT Innovation Awards distinguishes equipment, techniques, services or products that contribute to progress in the construction and materials industry.
Open-S is a standard for the hydraulic interface between quick coupler, tiltrotator, and attachments and builds on the established symmetrical standard (the S standard) for quick couplers for excavators. The Open-S standard gives machine owners and contractors the freedom to combine quick couplers, tiltrotators, and work tools from different manufacturers that comply with the standard, and the definition of the interface ensures that a combination of products will not interfere with or alter the safety solution of each individual product.
A lot of hard work has been put into developing the Open-S standard, and recently the alliance welcomed Wacker Neuson as a new member.
There are several opportunities to see combinations with products from different manufacturers that comply with the Open-S standard at Intermat, on static display or in live machine demonstrations. Several examples are in the stands of member companies Kinshofer, Rototilt, and Steelwrist.
"We are very happy to receive the INTERMAT Innovation Award for the Open-S Standard, where focus has been to create something that is good for the excavator operators and owners. Imagine when operators freely interchange both mechanical and hydraulic attachments between excavators in the same size class, then how much efficiency wouldn't that create? Just think about how much time is wasted because workshop personnel, service engineers, and operators connect attachments manually or change adaptors to make sure an attachment fits a certain quick coupler. Locking customers into proprietary solutions might at first glance seem like a good idea for a manufacturer, but I think that history shows that it's normally not a great idea," says Stefan Stockhaus, chairman of the board of Open-S Alliance AB.
