Pioneering with electrically powered hedge trimmer

At Becx Machines, things are bubbling and bubbling with enthusiasm. Indeed, they are currently developing an all-electric powered version of their 'famous' hedge trimmer, the Becx HS13HR. An interesting but complex process, explains company manager Koen van den Hurk: "Everything used to be hydraulic. You could go either way with that because the components were universal. However, there is still a hint of secrecy surrounding the electrical technology of electrically driven tool carriers. The knowledge is not yet as standardized as is the case with hydraulics. This makes it a challenge to make the various components compatible."

Becx Machines already had plans to develop an electrically driven hedge trimmer, but when their customer JvESCH from Cromvoirt expressed the same desire, everything gained momentum. "This customer then put us in touch with E-Hydro Power and with them we started to explore the possibilities for an electric drive. E-Hydro Power already has experience in electrifying truck-mounted cranes since 2018 and this experience comes in handy in this project."

Van den Hurk's roots are in the earth-moving machinery industry. He has worked for many years at Becx Machines, which manufactures hedge trimmers, hydraulic arms and weed brushes, among other things. "We are curious by nature and like to be at the forefront. That's why we invest in innovative products. Because we are all about quality, we want to be well prepared when we launch a new product. We therefore conduct thorough research, together with customers, partners and manufacturers."

"Another factor that makes the development complicated is that with an electric drive, it's closely related to how much power you need to get the job done. With a diesel engine, you actually have an abundance of power and capacity, but that is not the case with an electric drive. So we had to start by figuring out how much power is actually needed to trim a hedge. And then it turns out that theory and practice don't always match up. In fact, during the first test of our prototype, we already noticed that starting up the blades requires more power than our theoretical calculation."

"Now we are going to do what is known as a dry test and next week we will also do field testing. This should show how much power we eventually need and what a suitable battery pack is. We are also investigating how many hours a day and how intensively a pruner is used, so that we know which electric motor can do this work."

Although the initial test results are hopeful, it is difficult to predict when the electric pruner will hit the market. "But we are building the drive on a standard machine, so when we have gathered all the knowledge soon, it is just a matter of buying the right components and starting to build the machine. And so then it can go very quickly," van den Hurk laughs.

When asked why they chose to start with the electric drive of a hedge trimmer, Van den Hurk replied, "Our hedge trimmers just do extremely well and are very popular with our customers. As a result, we have several patents on them. The HS131HR is our best-selling product, which is why we are doing our best to be the first to build a sustainable version of this."

As is clear from the above, Becx Machines absolutely does not want to compromise on quality. "We get excited about further developing machines to a high quality level, making them low-maintenance and virtually trouble-free. And that gives us room to come up with new concepts. There are customers who have machines from us that are still working after 14 years. And for a tool with a running engine, that's something we should be quite proud of."