Wedgelock Equipment is a designer, manufacturer and exporter of innovative, world class hydraulic quick couplers and attachments for excavators.
This year sees Wedgelock Equipment Limited celebrate its 30th birthday as leaders in the design and manufacture of excavator couplers and attachments.
Chief Executive Officer Matthew Calvert said it was a legacy that the company was extremely proud of, being one that holds an enviable track record for solving some of the toughest earthmoving challenges on the planet.
“The success of Wedgelock has been entirely based on safety, innovation, quality and service. Commitment to these key factors has led to the company’s successful penetration of both the domestic and global markets,” he said.
Able to reflect on decades of experience and know-how, Wedgelock offers a comprehensive range of superbly designed products – all manufactured to the highest global standards – and guaranteed to enhance the utility of their carrier machines.
With manufacturing and distribution of its products principally throughout New Zealand, Australia and North America, Wedgelock’s growing customer base ranges from single machine owner-operators to Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM).
Wedgelock’s new Australian office and warehouse is located in Yatala, Brisbane, and from here, a range of popular stock is available for immediate shipment.
Its fully equipped manufacturing facility is based across the Tasman, in Upper Hutt, New Zealand, a half hour drive North from the nation’s capital city Wellington.
From here it ships couplers across to Australia weekly.
Wedgelock boasts a large team of 11 full-time design engineers, all of which are diligently working on designing new Hydraulic and Quickflow Coupler technology, or upgrading their existing product offering.
“Wedgelock is very excited about releasing two new products towards the end of the year – one of these new products will be our latest Hydraulic Coupler design,” Matthew said. “The new coupler will be aptly, and proudly, just be called the Wedgelock Coupler.
“It’s by far our best yet, it’s one that we are extremely proud of and very eager to put our name on.
“After 30 years of making couplers, I can categorically state that this new coupler is by far our best yet.
“We’ve made it significantly stronger and more reliable than any previous version, yet we’ve also been able to make the design less complex, whilst not compromising any of our renowned safety features”.
Wedgelock’s new coupler still features its patented instant latching system, but it has also enhanced it with an instant reset function so both engagement and disconnection of attachments will be instantaneous.
It has also built-in fully integrated secondary safety devices that will instantly engage, only if required, to keep attachments locked on, in the unlikely event of a hydraulic failure within the carrier machine.
“Our field trials have already put thousands of hours into testing our new couplers within New Zealand, Australia and the United States, and they have been operating in a multitude of conditions,” Matthew said.
“All of which are performing exceptionally well. They have exceeded even our highest of expectations”.
Significant investment by the company into software technology will also pay dividends in supporting their customers.
Wedgelock’s Engineering Group Manager Lance Bower said the business now had the ability to create step-by-step instructional videos for replacing components.
“Part replacement can be assisted and completed in real time by watching a customised video providing step-by-step instructions of how to complete even the most complex of field repair,” he said.
Whether your need is for a single coupler or a large fleet procurement program, the Wedgelock team has a team of highly skilled sales personnel, design engineers and fabricators who are always happy to assist.
“Great attachments don’t just happen,” Matthew said.
“They come as a result of many things, including listening carefully to customers, testing out ideas and continually researching and fine-tuning results.
“It’s this approach, combined with highly skilled engineering, advanced technologies and an ongoing commitment to improvement, that makes Wedgelock a world-class provider of quick couplers and attachments.”