Scanreco is one of the world’s largest developers and manufacturers of radio control systems, developing and manufacturing products for a range of different areas of use and machine types. Manufacturers of machines and equipment for the building and construction industry are major Scanreco clients, with many companies from the industries that PDi Magazine covers being major users of Scanreco’s equipment. This includes control systems for demolition robots, wall and wire saws, large concrete floor grinders and more. Since starting to work with manufacturers in these industries in the 1990s, Scanreco is now considered to be the sectors leading supplier of radio control systems. 

40 years of radio control

It all started in 1984 when Björn Askestig and Kaj Johansson founded the company in a garage in Södertälje, a town just south of Stockholm in Sweden. From the beginning, the company grew rapidly, and in recent years has grown by between 15% and 20% annually. Today, Scanreco employs around 400 people worldwide and has a turnover of close to €1B. The company’s headquarters is located in Sätra, which is a suburb just southwest of Stockholm, where all product development (with an extensive an development department with various types of labs and test facilities) is undertaken.

Equipment that must withstand tough treatment

When PDi visited Scanreco, we were met by the company’s CEO Peter Lageson and sales manager for global OEM Magnus Lundgren, with the visit starting with a tour of the bright, modern premises, including the various laboratories where the products’ software and hardware are developed. Scanreco has a special department that ensures that all products meet, and often exceed, the EU’s strict requirements for functionality and safety. Rigorous tests are carried out according to detailed test protocols, both in the laboratories at Sätra and by external test institutes, to ensure that the products meet current international standards before being released to market.

Scanreco’s system is mainly used for radio control outdoors, often in very tough operating environments. The verification process is extensive, which is necessary to ensure operational reliability as unexpected machine downtime can mean loss of income for the machine owner. Thus reliability is important for users of radio control for heavy machinery and powerful equipment. In the wet room laboratory, both a water hose and a shower cabinet are used to soak equipment with water for a number of days to test that the equipment is able to withstand wet weather conditions. In the climate cabinets, the temperature and humidity changes from tropical heat wave to freezing conditions to test both electronics and mechanics under extreme temperature conditions. The products also undergo vibration and drop tests where they have to endure tough handling.

Industry leading radio signal

A radio control system for, for example, a demolition robot endures tough handling during every day of the year. Weather and wind, dirt, concrete, mud and hard knocks are commonplace and the equipment must be able to deal with it all. The radio signal is also a crucial component of a radio control system. In a so-called EMC chamber (electro-magnetic compatibility), the  radio signal is tested against the standards within the EU’s Radio Equipment Directive, also known as RED. Scanreco’s radio signal has been praised for being very stable and that it does not disturb, or is disturbed by, other signals in the vicinity of the machine. Scanreco even has a former university professor in radio technology employed who primarily works with developing and improving the radio signals for the company.

Manufacturing and market

After the tour, Peter Lageson and Magnus Lundgren undertook a presentation on the company and its products with Mattias Kelam, VP product management at Scanreco, joining via a link. Peter Lageson explained that the products are developed in Sätra but manufactured at the company’s own state of the art factory in the city of Łódź, which is located just west of Warsaw in Poland. To the factory in Poland, which was commissioned in 2022 and has a workforce of 200 people, can be added five subsidiaries in Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and the USA as well as a number of employees in other countries. In China, there is a locally focused distribution channel with final assembly for the Asian market. In addition, Scanreco has a large global network of independent distributors and sales partners. 

The products are sold to machine manufacturers all over the world, with the largest single market being Europe; the second largest is North America, which today accounts for around 20% and is growing strongly. The company is also experiencing strong growth in Asia and the Middle East. However, it is in North America where Scanreco is benefitting from a boom in radio control use. “North America is the fastest growing market for us now,” says Lageson. Scanreco’s American subsidiary is located in Cincinnati, Ohio. Here, too, some local assembly of the products for the North American market takes place with 35 people now being employed in the USA.

Increases efficiency, capacity and accuracy

Scanreco believes that investing in radio control for equipment used in demolition, concrete cutting, grinding and polishing of concrete surfaces, hydrodemolition and so forth has many advantages. “The advantages of radio control in these applications are that the operator can monitor and operate machines from a distance. The operator gets a much better overview of the work when he or she does not control the machine manually and has to stand close to it. With properly designed radio control, the operator can also significantly increase the accuracy, efficiency and quality of work,” says Mattias Kelam.

“Often the human and manual intervention in a mechanical part can mean a certain limitation. Wireless control, such as radio control, increases both efficiency and quality of work. Some examples are demolition with demolition robots where the operator gets a better overview of the work when he is away from the machine itself thanks to the wireless control. There is also less risk of being injured by falling material. The same applies when working with water forming robots, which often scatter a lot of concrete chips around the machine. When grinding concrete floors, which often generate a lot of dust, the operator gets away from the development of dust and gets a better overview of the job,” added Magnus Lundgren.

Close cooperation with customers and end users

Scanreco currently cooperates with several manufacturers of various machine types in Sweden but is mainly focused on the export market. “As a supplier of advanced radio control, you are anonymous in this context. Many of our customers want our equipment to be associated with their brand, which is something that applies in most global manufacturing contexts, for example in the automotive industry,” says Magnus Lundgren. 

“Other customers want to show off that they have Scanreco control. We do not display which global machine manufacturers we work with, and in which machines radio control from Scanreco is installed. But those who work in the respective machine industry usually know who has delivered the equipment. In all manufacturing contexts, components come from different suppliers. Starting from scratch and developing, tailoring and manufacturing radio control for a specific type of machine is very demanding and advanced. It is basically impossible for a machine manufacturer to have the deep knowledge and competence internally. That’s where we come in and deliver high quality radio control equipment,” says Peter Lageson. 

Mattias Kelam says that when it comes to customer relations, Scanreco ensure close collaboration with the machine manufacturer. “We always tailor the equipment for them and for a specific machine. With global manufacturers, it is especially important that we have a close collaboration with their technicians and development department. We often meet with end customers to create a complete picture of the machine and working conditions to get a good picture of how our equipment should work,” says Kelam.

The competitive situation

Today there are quite a few companies that specialise in the development and manufacture of radio control systems. There are now five very big players in the industry but  Scanreco is the leading player in terms of unique products, turnover, the number of employees and market scope. Lundgren explains why the company has this dominant position: “I would like to claim that we stand out for our electronics and the quality of our radio signals, which are very stable both in terms of external influences and that we do not interfere with other frequencies. The robustness of the products is another aspect.” 

“The construction and quality of our systems is very high, which means that they can withstand great stress without any trouble. Idleness, regardless of what it is due to, nobody wants at all. Our systems rarely break down, which is important to our customers,” says Lageson. Scanreco’s products are also modular, which makes it possible to relatively easily change, expand and adapt them based on machine manufacturers’ needs and requirements.

Today, Scanreco supplies radio control systems for more than 170 different machine types, a number that is constantly increasing as more and more machine manufacturers and machine owners realise the benefits of good radio control. The business began however building radio control for truck cranes, and in this sector, Scanreco is the undoubted global leader. Now radio control is used in many areas, with radio control being especially important with machinery that works outdoors in construction and mining. This includes drill rigs, concrete pumps, access equipment of various types and demolition robots. Scanreco also builds systems for use in the process industry, being used for such tasks as control of traverses and indoor cranes. In effect, if the work is demanding, tough and sometimes dangerous, then a Scanreco remote control is an ideal tool.

Something interesting that has occurred is an upsurge in robots and autonomous machines used in construction, agriculture and other sectors, with many manufacturers already actively working on the development of autonomous driverless machines. “This is a very interesting development for us, and where we are active, as wireless control becomes an important part of these ‘driverless’ machines,” concludes Lageson.

www.scanreco.com