22.02.2019

Bridge inspection JV for Palfinger

Palfinger has established a new joint venture inspection company – Strucinspect - in partnership with consulting engineer Vienna Consulting Engineers (VCE) and international surveying business Angst group.

The new business will focus on efficient and informative structural inspections of bridges and other structures. Palfinger owns 51 percent for the equity with the two technology partners holding 24.5 percent each. The partners estimate that the European bridge inspection market is worth more than €100 million.

Strucinspect will use a combination of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, multispectral sensors, artificial intelligence and three dimensional data processing to create a digital 3D copy of the structure, providing a detailed view of its exterior and interior state, reducing the time required to inspect buildings and structures, without needing to close the area off to traffic.

The company will then provide clients with a comprehensive digital assessment of the given structures’ state of repair, its current performance and a prediction of its service life. At the same time highlighting the most cost efficient and sustainable way of carrying out a full structural survey and any necessary maintenance.
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(L-R) Peter Furtner of VCE, Philipp Smole and Andreas Klauser of Palfinger with Albrecht Karlusch of Strucinspect

Palfinger chief executive Andreas Klauser said: “We have identified great opportunities for Strucinspect in Austria and Germany alone. After all more than 40,000 road bridges and over 25,000 railway bridges have to be inspected on a regular basis to guarantee road safety. Strucinspect is an example of Palfinger’s digitalisation strategy. With these new services, we will move even closer to our end customers. We are becoming a one stop shop that not only sells hardware, but services as well. Moreover, we have chosen the best partners in the market to make this possible.”