Airpes recruits US technical director

Airpes, a manufacturer of lifting, weighing and below-the-hook equipment, has appointed Alex Lozano as technical director for the Americas.  Lozano has moved from the company’s headquarters in Barcelona, Spain; the dual-citizen is fluent in both English and Spanish. As the global pandemic eases, Lozano’s role will evolve into a more exclusively site-based, customer-facing position.

Lozano has a broad skillset, which has been evident on a number of projects for the company, most notably a capacity upgrade of hulking lifting attachments for General Electric, a company for which he has also led training and technical assistance programmes.

Removing 40,000lb diesel-electric-hydraulic lifting apparatus from its shipping container (it filled the entire space) was just the start. It was then retrofitted with global system for mobile communications (GSM) connectivity, and capacity-enhanced fittings, before being completely tested for functionality. The GSM connectivity allowed engineers at the factory to log in remotely and monitor the upgrades and fine-tune the controls. Overall, approximately 300 hours were put into the upgrade in just four days.

Meanwhile, Lozano performed lifetime-extending and capability-expanding upgrades for another customer in South Carolina. There, a 120,000lb. capacity transfer car was upgraded to better match the duty cycle the equipment needed.

Airpes has three principle lines of business: pre-engineered weighing and monitoring kits for overhead cranes, including load cells, overload protection, readouts, and data loggers; engineered lifting devices for wind turbine erection and engineered below-the-hook devices, such as coil grabs, rotating blocks, and magnets. Most orders include product design, build and documentation.

Lozano said, “Airpes wins work by providing a more personalized experience, so having a field-based team means we can cover more bases for our customers and support our dealers. I often have to be the go-between for engineering teams at the factory and the customer. I speak a few dialects of Spanish, and received all of my training at the factory, so I work with them frequently. I don’t go out and sell the work, but I have to interface with customer engineers and field labour teams, such as ironworkers, continuously. Being able to help them and communicate effectively is critical to my success.”

Tad Dunville, general manager at Airpes Americas, said, “We’re looking to Alex to commission equipment, inspect and make repairs, and help programme proprietary devices. He’s getting more proficient at looking at applications and helping the sales team recommend a specific execution or bill of materials. In all of those endeavours, it helps him – and us – greatly that he is bilingual and able to communicate with all points of our supply chains.”

Lozano added, “I’ve been at headquarters recently but am eager to be back on site; we are starting to visit customers again as essential workers. Historically, I have spent more time in wind power but the industrial crane side of the market has been growing in importance. We are a growing company and I love the feeling of building something. Our customers expect us to deliver a whole package and that’s a challenge I rise to.”