The CEO of Finnish company Esteri Group, which supplied us with our Hosemaster machine, was in New Zealand last month to oversee a big upgrade to the machine.

Iivari Kalliomäki and his colleague Henri Rinne spent a week based in our Equipment and Logistics Service Centre in Tauranga. 

Our Hosemaster machine is a single-person, fully automated machine that washes, pressure tests, and semi-dries hose to 90% dry and coils it for us. It is much more environmentally friendly, safer, and efficient than our largely manual system. 

Henri conducted the upgrade and now Hosemaster’s productive output has nearly doubled for hoses tested per hour and it will now take our 90mm hose. This means it can handle all our hose except percolating hose – which Esteri Group is working on to remedy. 

National Manager, Equipment and Logistics, Charlie Lott said the E&L team has worked for some time with Esteri Group on nightly Teams meetings to get the machine to ‘where we knew it could be’. 

‘Henri was originally supposed to visit when we first received Hosemaster but COVID-19 lockdowns prevented this happening. Having him on the ground for a week allowed our Hosemaster team to gain a lot of first-hand knowledge and experience and the upgrade was totally successful. 

‘It consisted of introducing two new pneumatic rams that pinch the lengths of hose under test, a software update, and a change to the test cycle from pull though - stop - test - release - pull through and so on to a continuous test. The hose is tested as it is pulled through the machine, which makes it much faster, and it uses even less water.’ 

Charlie said Iivari Kalliomaki spent three days sharing his company's strategic intent and briefed the team on other products that Esteri Group markets. 

‘As a result of the upgrade to Hosemaster NZ 001, we intend to purchase a second unit to the same specification as NZ 001, which will be based in the South Island.’ 

Acting Deputy Chief Executive, Organisational Strategy and Capability Development, Cathryn Moriarty visited the Service Centre to meet the team and our visitors from Finland and learn more about Hosemaster. 

‘The Hosemaster introduces an impressive capability for cleaning and testing hose, it’s much more environmentally friendly, and most importantly, makes the team’s job safer and easier. 

Iivari Kalliomäki wrote an email of thanks to the team. 

’Thank you all for your collaboration and hospitality during our visit! 

It was great to work with you and solve all those demanding issues together with the professional FENZ team. It was amazing to see that attitude and enthusiasm of yours to solve and adjust HoseMaster to give all of its capacity to better serve better the FENZ demanding hose maintenance and testing process.’

Henri Rinne making final adjustments for the upgrade

Henri Rinne, Iivari Kalliomäki, Rob McMahon, Equipment & Logistics Capability Manager

Hosemaster upgrade team

Washed and tested forestry hose

 Washed hose wastewater

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