The Egi story
24 April 2008
Egi started life in 1927 as a French builder of power distribution networks. It developed its first aerial platform on trucks for line and pole installation in 1963 – at which time it was still part of EDF, the French electric power supplier – and then moved into the live–line market in 1968, the first European manufacturer to do so.
It was Claude Guillou, then the company's technical manager, who designed these live–line models and he remains extremely proud of them; “Our products are to higher standard; they are unique,” he says.
The company's insulated platforms are used for the three established methods for working on live lines: hot stick, gloving, and bare hands. The insulation is achieved by using fibreglass boom insulating sections filled with water–repellent foam to eliminate any electrical path formed by water, even in vapour form. Oil in the hydraulic systems is insulated, and control links use fibre optics. All booms are tested, as required, up to 500 kV, in conformance with the IEC/EN 61057 standard for insulated booms.
