FDIC 2017

[alex3610]

 

Spartan has their own line of aerials built originally under Crimson, which were designed with a unique roller bearing system to reduce friction and binding and were "ground up" designs not bought from someone else.  Jim Salmi (?) designed the aerials, I think he then ended up with E-One, not sure if there anymore. They were built in a section of the old LTI facility along side what was left of LTI under ALF, and still operating after Smeal's purchase as LTC.  

 

Spartan's aerial was offered to some other builders that didn't have their own (i.e. Toyne).  I assume they'll have the ability to use the LTC or Smeal product if they're doing away with the Spartan aerial design. 

 

The aerial business is unique isn't it? Correct me if I'm wrong.  I'm sure I'm missing stuff.

 

Smeal started out on their own, started building water well drilling rigs.

E-One did all their own designs with aluminum originally, now offers steel. Did they start with something that wasn't originally theirs?

RK's founder was an engineer at Smeal and left to do his own thing.  Lawsuits were filed due to the similarity in the products...

Grove ended up as LTI, now LTC.  

Where did KME's aerials start?

Pierce originally used Smeal for aerials, then designed their own and also bought Nova Quintech out of Canada.

Spartan (Crimson) designed their own from scratch

HME now builds their own aerials, I assume from scratch?

ALF bought LTI and Aerial Innovations.  AI no longer exists.  Also bought Snorkel, which was bought by Smeal with LTI, and is now Spartan owned.

 

Sorry for going so far off topic.

 

It gets pretty interesting when you start connecting the dots.  Smeal and LTI (Grove at the time) were essentially the grandfathers of the modern steel aerials (meaning built from structural steel elements).  They both started out about the same time a few thousand miles apart with no connection one another.  I forget the history but I want to say that the Grumman aerials (now KME) came from someone else or were designed by a lead engineer for another brand.  Perhaps someone else here can help fill in the blanks.  And yes, Jim Salmi is at E\-One as the head of the aerial products.

 

As it stands it sounds like the Smeal and LTC aerials will remain essentially doing away with the Spartan ER aerials.  But don't be surprised if you see a lot of their design elements over time incorporated into the others.  There are a bunch of similarities between the LTC and Spartan ER aerials by virtue of the fact that so many people came across the parking lot from the old company.  There are still details being worked out but I expect some press releases to come out sooner rather than later on all this stuff.