New Gear Harvesting New Gear
Who cares about hip chains? Martin wants to know

Now after 30 years of building these tools, my company Fremaco Devices is the last supplier and I’m about to make a big mistake.

GPS systems, remote sensing, drone technology and other new techniques have revolutionized the way work is done in the forest and these days the Hipchain is often left in the truck.

Still, there are times when the signal is hard to get and a quick way to make a visible trail, mark off an area or check planting spacing cause the worker to reach out for a hip chain to get’er done.

I hope that by making a better hip chain, a beautiful hip chain, workers will reach for it more often.

The GPS guys just laugh and joke about using bread crumbs. However, technology has a nasty way of letting you down just when you have come to rely on it. Rain and cold arrive and there you are with night falling, a dead gizmo in your hand and no idea where you are. That little thread showing where to go can be a real help.

High tech in the hip chain business translates to using 3D drafting and 3D printing to sculpt the perfect shape for a hip chain of the future. Slim to wear, a high capacity thread cone, accurate and trouble free, I have spent thousands of hours and many thousands of dollars to get past the made-in-somebody’s-garage type hip chain.

This work could be all pointless and the big financial investment in manufacturing tooling is still yet to come. Will that small mistake become a giant mistake? Will a market be there when the product is ready? Who is going to care? What is the future for the hip chain?

If you use a hip chain in your work and want a better one, I need to know. Guide me to get it right. Write to me with your views. Martin@fremaco.com