Nov - Dec 05 Products: Molnar hoists its standards high

Repair Products

Molnar hoists its standards high

Molnar Hoists has now released its long awaited SL02 scissor lift hoist. It is aimed at the smash repair business because technicians can work on the sides of a vehicle without being hindered by side supports of the conventional type of hoist.
The SL02 can raise up to three tonnes to a maximum height of 1.8 metres. Its strength comes from the additional steel that goes into the design of the hoist. Its extra weight also contributes to its stability.
Molnar hoists seem to have been part of the Australian auto repair scene for so long that few people would realise that its founder, 82 year old Frank Molnar, still comes to work every day at his extensive Adelaide engineering shop. Unexpected too is the fact that Molnar hoists are exported to 18 countries, including many in Asia which, themselves, produce some of the lowest priced repair equipment in the world.
"Price does not mean quality," says Kevin Dawes, Molnar's sales manager. "The Toyota factory in Dubai has 120 Molnar hoists. We even sell them to China because they don't want to take risks with hoists failing. In Australia, only last year, three of the four arms of an imported hoist broke off and a car fell. Luckily, there was nobody underneath it but when the broken arms were examined it was found that they were made from cast aluminium because the maker had run out of steel."
As far a Molnar is concerned, steel isn't just any steel. It has to be Australian and strength rated well above the minimum requirements for the load it will have to carry. The steel begins its life in Molnar's receiving dock and leaves as a completed, powder coated hoist. Every phase of the manufacture is done in-house, which makes Molnar unique in the hoist business ‘ even among most of its overseas competitors which act as assemblers of outsourced components. The production line also incorporates individual testing of every component to make sure it will more than fulfil its stated capacity.
Even though Molnar has some of the most sophisticated computer driven engineering machinery available, and could make any number of products, it concentrates on hoists.
"If you focus on one product and keep working at it you become very good at it,' Dawes says. "Because we're a family company we've been able to reinvest in new equipment where other companies have had to pay out profits to shareholders. That's why we've got the best laser cutters and welding robots available. We can compete on quality with anybody in the world."
Dawes says that quite a number of companies make hoists and agrees that some of them are of good quality. But with Molnar you get a back up of parts that go back to its earliest models. Many hoist manufacturers, particularly overseas, make sales on the Australian market which purchasers regret when they go looking for parts and find the company no longer exists ‘ or has no parts available.
Molnar does not sell direct to smash repairers, but relies on a network of distributors, the major one being Repco.