“Hencon's vehicles are all built to ensure the highest safety and efficiency standards,” Peter Vanvuchelen, Director Sales & Business Development, Hencon

Peter Vanvuchelen is an accomplished professional with over eight years of experience in Business Development at Hencon. His career includes pivotal roles such as General Manager at Deutz Engines Benelux from 2014 to 2016, Director of Sales and Marketing at Linde Forklifts Benelux, and sales responsibilities for Caterpillar and Mitsubishi Forklifts across EMEA. Peter's expertise spans strategic business growth, sales management, and leadership in the industrial and automotive sectors.

AL Circe: Can you provide an overview of Hencon's history and key milestones in the aluminium industry? How does Hencon stay ahead of technological advancements in the aluminium industry?

Peter Vanvuchelen: Hencon was founded in the Netherlands in 1956. At the time, we mainly manufactured side loaders and road construction vehicles, such as motor graders. In the early years, we introduced our familiar side-loading concept, which has been used in the global steel and wood industry for 40 years. Many years of experience, flexibility, and innovative drive are key features of our identity.

In 1972, we ventured into the light metal industry, becoming the world's leading company in special mobile equipment for the aluminium industry. Our programme includes a complete range of special vehicles for casthouses, foundries and potrooms.

The production of cost-efficient base metals is becoming increasingly complex. We design and manufacture special vehicles with leading-edge technology, delivering excellent performance. Our solid devices also come with a high level of service and on-site maintenance. Our goal is to ensure that our customers' equipment is available 24/7 for many years to come.

Hencon has led in new technologies, such as electrification, automation, and vacuum technology.

Our goals here are to enable our customers to enter the Industry 4.0 transition whenever they are ready for it and to raise awareness in fields like health and safety.

AL Circle: How does Hencon integrate sustainability into its product development and operations? What role does Hencon see itself playing in the future of sustainable aluminium production?

Peter Vanvuchelen: Hencon offers its customers the possibility of overhauling their fleets, giving vehicles a second life and reducing their carbon footprint. We even overhaul other brands.

Besides this, we try to keep up with industry trends and offer our services and know-how to smelters that want to reduce their carbon emissions. For more than ten years, Hencon has offered electrified vehicles in cast houses and pot rooms.

AL Circle: Can you discuss Hencon's global presence and the key markets where your products are most utilised?

Peter Vanvuchelen: Hencon's perspective is that we need to be there where our customers are. For that reason, we have subsidiaries, partners or hubs in the regions where we deliver vehicles and service. Our main markets are Europe, North America and the Middle-East.

AL Circle: What are the unique features of Hencon's potroom vehicles that make them suitable for the rough environments of aluminium production sites?

Peter Vanvuchelen: Hencon's vehicles are all built to ensure the highest safety and efficiency standards. Therefore, Our vehicles are very robust and equipped with standard safety features that are trendsetting in the business. Each vehicle leaving our factory is equipped with a telemetric system, not just giving all detailed information about the vehicle status, detecting safety risks and potential damage, but also giving access to our portal, allowing our customers to see when the next maintenance will take place when spare parts need to be ordered etc.

Our casthouse equipment has been constructed in such a way that the life expectation of the refractory can be easily doubled compared to using traditional vehicles.

Hencon vehicle sales are just one part of the story. The most important aspect is the relationship that we try to build with all of our customers individually. Understanding our customers, listening to their needs, following the trends in the different markets, and finding answers to the specific needs in each market and for each customer are the niches in which Hencon wants to excel.  

AL Circle: How does the EVY compact vacuum cleaner contribute to maintaining a clean potroom environment? Can you elaborate on the efficiency, safety, and maintainability improvements in the EVY compact vacuum cleaner? What are the cost and environmental benefits of using the EVY compact vacuum cleaner compared to traditional cleaning methods?

Peter Vanvuchelen: Henson is continuously developing new improvements and sustainable solutions that focus on efficiency, safety, and maintainability, lowering the cost of ownership and the environmental impact of our products.

Keeping the potroom and casthouse clean is a highly important, harsh job. A special vehicle is required, performing dust-free with a high output. The latest development in this area is Hencon's first serial-produced, compact vacuum cleaner EVY.

The EVY is Hencon's first standard product. We are bringing advantages like fast delivery times and a very attractive price.

With the EVY, Hencon is able to filter even the finest dust in all closed areas, up to 0,2 microns. By doing so, the EVY handles one of the biggest (largely unknown) problems in the potroom and casthouse: ultra-fine dust. This (abrasive) dust is extremely harmful and even reduces the lifetime of other equipment. By offering a vacuum cleaner at an attractive price, we hope that our customers step away from the sweepers, who are essentially just creating dust clouds instead of eliminating it. In potrooms the EVY offers an additional advantage: all dust can be recycled, which reduces the ROI of this vehicle to a ridiculous short time.

A white paper on ultra-fine dust in casthouse and potroom has been written by Hencon. For information, please contact Hencon.

AL Circle: What makes the AGV anode pallet transport vehicle a smart solution for aluminium production facilities? How does the automation of the AGV anode pallet transport vehicle impact operational efficiency and cost reduction?

Peter Vanvuchelen: There is a growing need for smart vehicles—fully automated with no need for an operator. These advanced, automated guided vehicles prevent costly damage and significantly reduce operator costs. They improve our customers' competitiveness and also answer customers who have difficulties finding skilled operators. AGVs operate 24/7 without interruption (except during periods of preventative maintenance).

An almost unlimited amount of data, such as the AGV's live positions, battery status, and readings from their scanners and sensors, can be made available for data-gathering software, such as OPC UA.

In this way, a fleet of AGVs can – besides their primary task – serve as a troop of 'explorers', constantly collecting data on its trips through the plant to feed a constantly updated model or visualisation of the state of the plant and, therefore even improving the smelter's production process: the collected information helps operators and plant managers to make better decisions based on actual and historical data. All this collected operational information is kept within the plant's protected network – so cyber-security is assured.

It is interesting to add that all of Hencon's AGVs are electrified, pre-sorting to a growing demand for reducing exhaust in the potroom.

Hencon – at this point – is the only manufacturer that has successfully implemented AGVs in the electromagnetic fields of a Potroom.

In short, the AGV reduces costs (damage, maintenance, operator's costs) to an absolute minimum, and it is the gateway to Industry 4.0

AL Circle: Can you introduce the E-APTV and explain how it revolutionises the aluminium industry? What are the specific applications of the E-APTV in aluminium production processes?

Peter Vanvuchelen: Hencon's APTVs are designed to pick up and transport anode trays with fresh or spent anodes, crust bins, tapped bath ingot moulds, bath tapping ladles, mobile hoppers, and all other tools that fit into the transporter's load bay.

The Hencon e-APTV adds full electrification to these functions. It is the first vehicle that is able to work in a potroom (electromagnetic fields) with a high voltage system on board. All the advantages related to an electrified vehicle (low maintenance costs, zero exhaust, silent operation) are present in this versatile truck.

This vehicle starts a series of vehicles that will be built based on the same platform. The head of the vehicle will be standardised, keeping the price at an acceptable level, allowing our customers to purchase a fully electrified heavy vehicle for in the potroom, to be connected to trailers of their choice (anode pallet transportation, crucible transportation, etc.)

It is worth mentioning that this series of electrified vehicles completes our product range of Anode Pallet / Crucible Transporters and fills the gap between APTVs with a combustion engine and fully automated guided vehicles (AGVs).