Jouko Suominen looks back on his career with Lokotrack® crushers: “From competitor's doubts to success – we brought a new product concept to life”

“Lokomo was already the second manufacturer to whom the customer presented the idea of a track-mounted crusher. The first candidate wasn’t willing to invest in new crushing technology. That gave us the opportunity to realize what became highly successful Lokotrack® concept,” says Jouko Suominen, Master of Science in Engineering, who was involved in the product’s early development 40 years ago. 

During his long career at Lokomo, Suominen held several key roles: Chief Designer of crushing equipment, Marketing Director, Head of Development and Product Development, Head of the Lokotrack business line, leader of Nordberg Asia-Pacific operations, and finally, Chief Technology Officer at Metso Minerals. 

A customer idea that sparked development 

In May 1985, Suominen received a call from Reijo Santanen, Sales Director, inviting him to hear a proposal from Telamurska Oy: the customer wanted a track-mounted secondary crusher. 

“At the end of the meeting, we had to admit we needed to study the idea further. It was a completely new product concept for us – no one had any experience with it.” 

Despite the uncertainty, the team decided to make an offer to the customer. Due to the tight schedule, the design team created a preliminary concept image by removing the wheels from an existing crusher trailer and replacing them with a track system. Based on this, the deal was almost immediately confirmed. 

Seeing the “prototype” was crucial 

According to Suominen, one of the key accelerators in launching the Lokotrack design and production was a quick visit by product design experts Kari Rikkonen and Ville Vuorela to Ulvila, where the customer had built a “prototype”. 

“The customer had mounted a small Svedala jaw crusher onto the undercarriage of a used Åkerman excavator. Seeing that small, agile machine in action convinced us. We truly began to believe in the concept – a machine that could move on its own tracks directly to the rock material on-site.” 
 

A new way of crushing takes hold 

The early days of Lokotrack were not without challenges. Internally, there were concerns about the workload required for design and assembly, and doubts about the project’s profitability. 

“Maybe we’ll build three of these – and then it’s over,” was the word around the factory. 

Domestic customers were initially skeptical as well. Larger industry actors questioned the demand: “Nice machine, but once ten are sold, the Finnish market is saturated.” 

But smaller contractors quickly saw the value of the Lokotrack concept. As larger companies later acquired these smaller actors, the benefits of the machine became more widely recognized. Eventually, major earthworks companies also joined the queue as the new crushing method gained ground. 

“Soon it became common to see long road construction sites where rock was being crushed simultaneously in multiple locations using track-mounted equipment – no longer transported from afar,” Suominen recalls. 

Subcontracting enabled rapid growth

Despite early doubts, Lokotrack crushers experienced rapid growth. The year after the concept was introduced, seven units were built and 12 were already in order. Within four years, the 100-unit milestone was reached, 200 in six years, and over 500 in just over a decade. 

“Without the quickly established subcontractor network, we wouldn’t have been able to keep up with production at the Hatanpää site. It became a familiar sight: track frames coming in through the gate and finished Lokotrack crushers going out,” Suominen recalls.