Hydrauliska Industri AB

Hydrauliska Industri AB (HIAB) is a Swedish manufacturer of loader cranes, demountable

container handlers, forestry cranes, truck-mounted forklifts and tail lifts. The company is owned
by the Cargotec Corporation.

History
The name, Hiab, comes from the commonly used
abbreviation of Hydrauliska Industri AB, a company
founded in Hudiksvall, Sweden 1944 by Eric Sundin, a ski
manufacturer who saw a way to utilize a truck's engine to
power loader-cranes through the use of hydraulics. Hiab
invented the world's first hydraulic truck-mounted crane in
1947.[1] On the other side of the Bothnian Sea in Raisio,
Finland about the same time, three brothers, Mikko, Mauno Fire engine equipped with HIAB
and Martti Terho developed a mechanical cable-operated crane and hook-lift
interchangeable platform-loader (Cablelift) that utilised the
truck's front winch, with which it was possible to use a variety
of platform bodies. In 1949 they started Multilift to manufacture their innovative load handling
equipment.

The roots of today's Hiab Company lie in a series of

acquisitions from 1977 onwards, when Partek Corporation
embarked on a comprehensive diversification and
internationalisation strategy. Founded in 1898, Partek
Corporation was one of the oldest industrial companies in
Finland, originally producing limestone and later a versatile
range of materials for the construction industry. In 1977
Partek decided to expand into the engineering industry and
thereby decrease its dependence on domestic construction
when it first bought named Multilift. Eight years later, in 1985,
the company bought Hiab with its forestry-crane subsidiary
Jonsered. In 1988 they bought Loglift - as the name implies,
also a forestry crane manufacturer.

During the late 1990s Partek strategically restructured itself

into an engineering company, fully divesting its construction-
materials activity and making several acquisitions in the load-
handling equipment business.
Unimog with HIAB loader crane.
The load-handling side of Partek expanded in 2000 with the
acquisition of the Zeteco Group (including among others
ZEPRO and WALTCO tail lifts). During the same year the truck-mounted forklift business was
acquired, bringing today's MOFFETT and PRINCETON PIGGY BACK brands into the company.

KONE Corporation acquired Partek in 2002. In 2004 the load-handling functionality was renamed
after its most valuable product brand, HIAB. On June 1, 2005, KONE Corporation demerged into
new KONE and Cargotec Corporation (listed in Helsinki Stock Exchange). Cargotec consists of
Hiab load-handling, Kalmar container-handling and MacGREGOR marine-cargo handling
solutions.
See also
Cargotec
Grapple truck
Loader crane

References
1. "History | Sunfab" (http://www.sunfab.com/about-us/history.aspx).
[1] (http://www.cargotec.com)
"HIAB News" from Chile (https://web.archive.org/web/20050409074125/http://www.hiab.cl/Hiab
noticias2_2004.htm) (in Spanish)
"HIAB Firsts" from Atlas Polar (http://www.atlaspolar.com/material-handling-equipment/HIAB-tr
uck-mounted-cranes-firsts.html)

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This page was last edited on 31 July 2021, at 02:28 (UTC).

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