Poclain's curious model suffixes, CK, CKB, CL?

[Gavin Phillips]

Most excavators are pretty easy to follow as to what suffixes after their model number actually mean. LC (Long Carriage) has been kicking around for years, HRD (High Reach Demolition) seems to be used officially by CAT although it seems to be a generic term for all long reach excavators used for demolition jobs.

The variety of Poclain designs (and obviously the cross-language translation issues with engineering terms) is somewhat confusing. If you see a Poclain in the flesh, unless you are lucky enough to find and be able to read the data plate, its a 75, 90, 160 or whatever. Most of the Poclain's I've seen over the last few years have been scrap handlers, standard machines more or less with long booms fitted with a 4 or 6 tine grapple. I can only recall a single example with a high-view cab.

Do the designations for Poclain machines relate to specialist versions of these? Is there a rough translation guide to be found? On plant sales sites, CK, CKB and CL seem to be the most common suffixes used but as to what they actually mean? No idea.

Best regards

Gavin

[clockworklozenge1]

Theres a great section on the french photostp website regarding a lot of poclain technical info- Nialcop has most documents- and the french website can be translated to english at a click of the translate button- the ck - cl codes refer generally to the machine undercarriages I believe- ck being the heavy duty quarry type carriage and cl being the standard duty excavator carriage

p was used to designate a rubber tyred carriage- example poclain 90p .......

[European A]

That's right Clock!
Besides the B series consisted of the 1974's former series updated in 1982.

[Gavin Phillips]

Now things are making more sense, thank you for the replies.

The last "original" Poclain machine I saw was a 75CKB rehandler; basically a standard excavator set-up with an electro-magnet. Not a bad machine either considering its age and obviously well cared for too.

Perhaps a heavy duty undercarriage would also be a useful modification for use on demolition sites? I've seen a few brochures on eBay over the last few years depicting some kind of high reach attachment long before the days of the first HRD's (perhaps Poclain were way ahead of their time here?).

Best regards

Gavin

[Tracshovel]

Probably one of the best referances for Poclain equipment are the two magazine published by Historie & Collections of Paris, France. Look out for the Charge Utile Magazine No 29 ( machines upto 1973) + No 37 (machines 1974 to 1989). Not sure if you can still buy direct from the publisher but Nynehead Books may still have some stock. The magazines are all in French (of course) but they have excellent referance tables and the pictures are terriffic.....plenty unusual boom combinations. There is also some of the demolition machines Gavin is looking for.

[European A]

Yeah, good advice Tracshovel!
Those Charge Utile issues are great. Plenty of photographs and information. You can also find "La Mémoire Vive", a book published by the "Géneration Deux" Association. Géneration Deux is a club formed by Poclain ex-workers.
http://www.generationdeux.fr/
"La Mémoire Vive" is a black and white book written in French too. It is really interesting since it shows the human part of the business. After all, great companies are built by great people.
It is a shame there is not a Poclain book with big and colour pictures to honour this brand. something like the Motorbooks titles written by Eric Orlemann or the ones written by Peter Grimshaw.

Gavin, concerning the 75CK B for demolition sites, Poclain built the 85CK B which consists of the 75CK B with a 90CK B undercarriage. It could fit better on HD works.


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[Martyn Henley]

I had no idea how big Poclain range was, even a crawler loader...

http://www.poclain-bagger.de/andere/cmc-raupe-scan2.jpg

Wheeled loaders, and mini diggers..
Thank you Euro for sharing

Martyn

[Gavin Phillips]

A standard Poclain 75 with a larger undercarriage would indeed be very handy when working on uneven terrain or on a gradient. I do believe JCB did something similar with their 6c and 6D machines?

I was also completely unaware of Poclain's involvement with anything to do with crawler loaders. Was this just a pilot machine that never made it into production?

I'll have to keep a look out for these magazines, I see there's quite a number of them up for grabs on eBay but neither one of the two issue numbers is listed! Isn't that the way it always works?

Best regards

Gavin

[European A]

CMC was a brand created by poclain to build and manufacture wheel loaders and track loaders. They went into production but they never reached the sales expected, I think. The PPM cranes, a joint venture Poclain-Potain, were much more popular.
There are also other interesting websites or blogs to see Poclain pictures:
http://www.poclain-bagger.de
http://www.poclainexcavator.be/
http://www.ec1000.net/
The Charge Utile issues are usually on ebay. Buying "inter poclain" magazines on ebay is a much more expensive option. But I would say Inter Poclain magazines and O&K News were the best magazines published by plant brands.