Bomag Innovation Days : The Movie

Without a doubt, one of my highlights last year was Bomag’s Innovation Days event held at the company’s long established and extensive facility in Boppard, Germany.

When we think of rollers many of us in the industry instantly think Bomag, the name has become synonymous with compaction equipment over the years, much in the same way we relate to any kind of vacuum cleaning devices as a Hoover, and backhoe loaders of any make get called a JCB.

My earliest memory of working with Bomag equipment was around 1977, when straight out of school my father secured me a job with Wimpey Construction, as a “chain boy” essentially as an engineer’s assistant on a project within Southampton docks. When I wasn’t required in that role, I was often tasked with operating a Bomag BW90 double drum vibratory roller compacting material in preparation for concreting bays.

I still recall the daily morning task of inserting a starter pellet into the head of the old Hatz diesel engine and the herculean effort required to turn over the engine by hand with a starting handle to get it to fire up, there was a real knack to it, as I learned to master over the coming months.

With this in mind, it was great to finally pay a visit to Bomag at their spiritual home of Boppard, in Germany to attend their Innovation Days event.

It was in this area that Bomag was founded in 1957 by Karl Heinz Schwamborn and it was in that same year that he developed a completely new design in compaction technology with the introduction of the BW 60 double drive drum vibratory roller, a fully restored example of which was proudly on display in the presentation room.

This was followed by another first in 1962 with the introduction of the BW-200 the first ride-on double drum vibratory roller.

Fast forward to 2004 and Bomag was acquired by family-owned French business the Fayat Group. This multi-faceted construction and engineering business was first established by French entrepreneur Clément Fayat, also in 1957. Today the business is managed by his two sons Jean-Claude and Laurent Fayat, offering gainful employment to 2,500 employees worldwide, and with a turnover in the region of 5.6 billion euros.

In 2005 the Bomag brand officially became Bomag Fayat Group and with big investment has continued to expand its range of products, not only in the compaction sector, but also road surfacing equipment, planers, soil stabilisation and waste compactors to name a few.

The Boppard facility is massive and on its own employs 1,700 of the total global workforce. A tour of the various factory elements was something of an eye opener, this is true manufacturing from start to finish, as sheet steel goes in from one end and fully assembled machinery rolls out of the other end.

Of particular interest was the state-of-the-art drum factory which was opened in 2013, following a massive €21.5 million investment by the company, the largest single investment in Bomag’s history. We witnessed steel sheets being formed into the drums on the specialist bending equipment.

Bomag’s Innovation Days format first took place in 2019 attracting visitors, customers and dealers from all over the world. This year was the sixth edition as the company showcased some of its latest machines and technology in an action-packed extravaganza, which also featured a stunt motor bike rider and professional freestyle football performances.

Bomag’s media team has since released a fantastic video round up from the event, which I'm delighted to share with you below.