Lammers Concrete: “It’s hard to break a Tele Radio remote control”

“Without cranes, nothing gets done,” says Jan van Lierop, Production Manager at Lammers Concrete. “When it comes to lifting, our bare hands don’t get us very far. What we do use our hands for, though, is operating a wireless remote control. It creates a safer working environment for our people – much more than a fixed control could.”

On the edge of Weert, in the south of the Netherlands, the facilities of Lammers Concrete sit side by side. A few kilometers further on, the Zuid-Willemsvaart canal runs into Belgium. In total, some fifteen hectares spread across three sites within less than a kilometer of each other. Balconies, gallery slabs, walls, façades, stairs, and landings. “At Lammers Concrete, no prefab concrete element is too ambitious.”

Heavy stuff

Lammers Concrete produces precast concrete for infrastructural projects, commercial and public buildings, and both low-rise and multi-story residential construction. “Everything is made to measure,” Van Lierop says.

The plant operates 54 cranes. Outdoors, each site features three gantry cranes and a tower crane, with lifting capacities ranging from 10 to 50 tons per crane. Inside, the 40 double-girder and two single-girder overhead cranes make up the majority. Van Lierop: “A standard residential staircase weighs about two tons. Staircases for a stadium about 25 tons. And for infrastructural projects we cast beams weighing 32 tons. They’re heavy stuff.”

Panther and Tiger

From his office – adjacent to the entrance of the main site – Van Lierop explains how the relationship with Tele Radio developed. “We’ve been using Tele Radio’s Panther and Tiger systems for about five years now. We also use two other brands. Over time, we’ll reduce that to only Tele Radio.”

“Our crane supplier stated a preference for Tele Radio. That was the deciding factor,” Van Lierop recollects. “By now we have so many Tele Radio remotes in use that we’ll centralize maintenance, repairs, and spare parts under our own roof.”

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Trained by Tele Radio

First and foremost, Lammers Concrete’s technical department benefits from running a single system across the factory. “If I work with three different systems, my technical team has to understand all three.”

Tele Radio also trains the technical staff of Lammers Concrete. Van Lierop: “If we bring in knowledge about Tele Radio’s wireless controls, we save time that we’d otherwise spend coordinating with Tele Radio’s service department.”

Hard to break

At Lammers Concrete, Tele Radio remote controls are used around the clock. How do they perform under such high pressure? “The face foils became a household staple,” says service engineer Dave van Kessel, while providing a tour around the site. “The custom foils Tele Radio designed for us won’t last for more than six months – which makes sense, given how intensively we use the remotes – so we keep those on stock by default.”

“But other than that, Tele Radio remotes are hard to break,” Van Kessel says. “Unless you drop one or drive over them, perhaps. But then any remote would be done for.”