Icon in professional gardening industry turns 30 years old

What do Apple IMac, Iphone or Sony Walkman, Vespa, Polaroid Camera, Dyson vacuum cleaner, Tesla Model S ... have in common? They are all iconic products that are engraved in the collective memory because of their revolutionary innovative design or concept and as a result have totally changed the market after their introduction.

Such an icon in the professional garden sector turns 30 this year: the "ELIET Super Prof". This new green chipper was first introduced at the Agribex agricultural show in Brussels in 1994 and immediately won a Golden Are innovation prize. Revolutionary about this Super Prof was the innovative concept of a "self-propelled" chipper. The simple but genius idea behind this concept was: no longer bring the trimmings to the chipper, but bring the chipper to the trimmings.  

The somewhat odd design of the Super Prof stood in stark contrast to the then main-stream professional shredder on trailer or on the third point of a tractor. Back then, machines with professional shredding capacity were usually large, heavy and unwieldy to move. Emiel Lietaer, founder of ELIET and also the inventor of the self-propelled concept, had noticed with his gardening contractor customers that a lot of time and energy was wasted uselessly moving/dragging branches and trimmings from the pruning site in the garden, to the shredder set up somewhere in the driveway or along the road. He figured that, if he could pack a shredding power of up to 12 inches - which is more than sufficient for the pruning residue from a private garden - into a very compact machine and, in addition, make it so easy to move that you could drive it with the greatest of ease into any garden right up to the job site, then you would have a shredder that would, in one fell swoop, make a garden contractor's job much more efficient. Thus, the idea for a wheel-drive chipper was born.  

Although its then small atypical design did not suggest it, the first generation Super Prof was already a thoroughly professional chipper. It had a large feed hopper, was equipped with a wide hydraulically driven feed roller and was also one of the first chippers on the market that had a "No-Stress" electronic feed control as standard. Thanks to the unique ELIET chipper system in combination with this "ABM" (Anti-Block-Motor) system, the ELIET Super Prof could process up to 12 centimeters of branch thickness with only a 16hp engine. Thanks to the wheel drive and its compact construction, the Super Prof could also be transported in a van without any problems, suddenly freeing up the tow bar for a trailer with which the garden contractor could take so much more to and from the yard. This concept brought unseen logistical advantages, and truly disrupted the way garden contractors work.  

In 1998, ELIET kept up the momentum and introduced the very first chipper on tracks with the Super Prof Cross Country. This was a logical next step in the thought process to get the Super Prof to the less obvious shredding locations. With this, the ELIET Super Prof had once again set a new milestone in the history of professional gardening.

Meanwhile, ELIET is 30 years and 3 generations Super Prof further and today this model is still the leading mobile chipper with more than 8000 users worldwide. To honor this iconic model, ELIET will bring a limited "anniversary" edition of the Super Prof Max on the market this fall. It will be on display for the first time at the Galabau trade fair that will take place from September 10 to 14 in Nuremberg (D). Dutch garden contractors can order this exclusive Super Prof version from mid-September.