SUCCESS STORIES
S P E C I A L O N AC E & O FF RO AD V EHICLES
Durable and Even Paint Surface for Environmental Management Machinery
I
What was then a small machinery
and maintenance of urban areas, its
entrepreneurial spirit founded a machinery
workshop became the largest
requirements include especially high wear
workshop, ‘Lankisen Konepaja’ near Loimaa,
North European manufacturer of
and weather resistance as well as a good
in the village of Hintsala (Finland).
environmental management and
appearance (Fig. 1).
Understanding the versatile needs of
maintenance machines in the 2.0–5.8
The small, complex parts of the hydraulic
customers Vilho Lankinen set up in 1978
tonnes weight category, with key market
cylinders are painted at Vilakone by hand
a completely new, multifunctional and
areas in Sweden, Finland, Norway, Russia
using liquid paints (Fig. 2). “All pieces
articulated machine under project name
and North America. Vilakone Oy is also
painted with liquid paint are small, round
‘Linkku’.
part of the international Wihuri group,
and challenging to coat” says Heikki Ketola
As the project progressed, the name was
which net sales are EUR 1.9 billion, and
from Vilakone Oy.
switched for Vilho’s nickname Wille, and the
employs over 5,000 people.
The solution for coating these challenging
first prototype of the machine saw daylight in
Being Wille a multipurpose machine
hydraulic cylinders turned out to be
1980.
for the environmental management
Teknos’ newly launched low-solvent © Teknos Group
n 1950 Vilho Lankinen, a young man with
1
Figure 1: Wille is a multipurpose machine for the environmental management and maintenance of urban areas.
92
N. 60 - NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2019 - international PAINT&COATING magazine