Specialists in Innovation

Paramount Equipment
Written by Ryan Cartner

Paramount Equipment is an exclusive authorized dealer for the Magni line of telescopic handlers in the United States. The company operates out of Union, New Jersey and deals exclusively in Magni products. According to Vice President of Sales and Operations Gary Weisman, it is Magni’s innovation is the reason for Paramount’s success.
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Magni is a European manufacturer of heavy machinery located in Modena, Italy. The company produces a specialized line of rotating and non-rotating telescopic handlers for various industries. These machines are four-wheeled vehicles with a telescoping arm that extends vertically over the cab, and in most cases, the arm and cab can rotate around a vertical axis. The arm can be fitted with various attachments including forklifts, winches, hooks, construction buckets similar to what you might see on the front of a bulldozer, platforms for lifting workers and more.

Magni’s roots stretch back to the 1950s when the family began repairing and manufacturing farm equipment. Over many years, the family developed an expertise in the field and eventually began manufacturing tower cranes. In the seventies, the company began building hydraulic cranes, and in 1980, it became the first manufacturer in Europe to offer a hydraulic forklift. From then on, the company continued to build new and innovative products, securing dozens of international patents for telescopic and rotating telescopic handlers. It has grown to be a global leader in the field.

Today, one thousand units of Magni equipment are manufactured annually in a state-of-the-art, 64,000 square foot facility in Castelfranco Emilia, near Modena, Italy, and Paramount represents Magni in the United States market.

Paramount is a proud advocate of the many innovations that this equipment has brought to the marketplace and deals with Magni equipment exclusively because the company’s leadership believes that this equipment is better in every conceivable way than any competing product available in the marketplace.

There are many innovative technological reasons for this superiority, but the essential one is that machines are modular. The telescopic arm on a Magni handler can be fitted with removable attachments. This means that it can operate as a telescopic forklift, a crane, and a work platform eliminating the need for three specialized machines and dramatically reducing costs. Given the diverse array of attachments available for the machines, these are only a small fraction of the many jobs for which one can be used.

Magni equipment falls into a few categories, but every piece of machinery the company manufactures has standard features that are key to what makes this equipment the best available in the marketplace. First, the machines do not have a dashboard. Wth many years of experience in the field working closely with operators, the company has found that removing the dashboard from the cab makes for a safer and all around better experience for the operator. Without a dash, the cab can be equipped with floor to ceiling glass, eliminating blind spots and giving the operator full view of the load all the way from the ground up.

Safety is a top priority, and so all Magni cabs contain a roll-over protection system (ROPS) and a falling object protection system (FOPS). Using heavy machinery can often create a lot of dust, and working in a dusty environment can present some serious health concerns. The cabs are all fully sealed, pressurized and air-conditioned to keep the operator safe and the air within the cab cool and clean.

Keeping the operator comfortable is a keystone quality to all Magni equipment. There are fully adjustable suspension seats and steering columns and a control system equipped with dual joysticks that can be controlled simultaneously. Magni understands that a comfortable operator works safely and efficiently.

The telescopic arm can be fitted with a number of specialized attachments for various applications. These attachments connect to a patented ‘Quick-Fit’ latch that is designed for safety. The locking mechanism can only unlock when the attachment is on the ground, eliminating the possibility of injury when using working platforms that carry people and the possibility of an attachment becoming detached while in the air or carrying a load.

All Magni attachments are fitted with short range wireless transmitters that communicate with the body of the machine so that it can know what it has attached at any given time. The telescopic boom arm is made of high tension steel making it very durable and sturdy under heavy loads.

Another standard feature in all Magni equipment is the highly innovative control system known as Magni Combi Touch System (MCTS). This is a touchscreen-based machine management interface that gives the operator unparalleled access to controls and information about the operation of the equipment. The system is built across five unique interface pages. First, the driving interface gives the operator the ability to select between three types of steering which include front axle, four-wheel and crab steering for tight spaces. This page also gives the operator access to all transmission related information such as speed, fuel and everything else you might expect to find on a standard dashboard.

There is a customization page for setting custom limits on rotations and lift heights. These limits are useful when operating in tight spaces such as between two structures or inside a building with a ceiling lower than the telescoping arms maximum height. The operator can set a maximum extension length, a maximum angle and can cap rotation at a specific degree in order to prevent accidentally damaging the equipment or the structure.

There is a page that gives the operator access to a load chart for the machine. Every piece of heavy lifting equipment, like a telescopic arm or a crane, has a chart called a load chart that lays out its capabilities. The maximum lift capacity of a machine is related to the angle of the arm and the distance between the load and the base. The load chart gives the information necessary to understand how a load can be safely maneuvered. The real genius of this page is that it dynamically builds the load chart based on the current state of the machine.

There are sensors throughout that allow MCTS to learn the weight of the load, the rotation of the turret, the length of the telescopic boom extension, its angle and the length of each individual stabilizer leg. Where many machines come with load charts that only show three configurations, fully retracted, fifty percent and one hundred percent extended, MCTS will give a load chart accurate to any extension from zero to one hundred percent.

The stabilization page gives the operator access to information about the stabilizing legs and realtime information on the stability of the machine. The further the load is from the base of the machine, the less stable it is, and the stabilization page allows the operator to monitor very carefully how secure the machine is throughout its operation.

Finally, the command page gives access to a number of important operating functions. On this page there is a panel that controls headlights, high beams, tail lights and any other lighting attached to the equipment. There is a panel that controls temperature and ventilation and a panel that gives specialized controls unique to the equipment.

The system automatically loads the screen relevant to whatever operation is currently happening. If the operator is lowering the stabilizing legs, MCTS will load the stabilization page. If the operator lifts the boom, MCTS will bring up the load chart. MCTS is a highly sophisticated management system that is unparalleled in the industry and unique to Magni equipment. Operators can work faster and more safely using this system, and it is one of the keystones to what has taken Magni equipment to the front of the line.

Setting the pace for the future of rotating telescopic equipment, Magni continues to push the limits of what is possible through innovation. This year the company introduced the RTH 6.46 SH, which can lift a weight up to 13,200 pounds to a height of 150 feet and has a forward reach of 110 feet. There is nothing like it in the world.

The leadership at Paramount Equipment understands the importance of innovation and new technology to their industry. They recognize in Magni the qualities of a business bound for greatness. By identifying a need in the United States for access to a higher caliber of rotating telescopic equipment, they have built a company that will rise alongside a global leader.

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