Erwin Haban
First of all,a bit of history. My uncle, Joe Haban started Haban Manufacturing with my grandfather in 1952. The company was located in Racine,Wisconsin. The family farm (homestead) was located about3 miles to the west near Franksville. My grandfather had three sons, allturned out to be Engineers and left the farm. My father, Joe's youngest brotheris Frank. Our family, (Franks) has spent the majority (of my life) residing in ManitowocWisconsin. During summer breaks from High School, I would spend my timedown at Haban Manufacturing. During those summers, I worked side by sidewith my uncle as he was engineering/adapting existing product to newmodel tractors each year. I understand his basic design intent andproduct requirements. Back home, I served a Machinist Apprenticeship withManitowoc Cranes the 1970's. In the early 80's, things got tough upin Manitowoc and I found myself out of work. After a phone call, I ended up working for Haban Manufacturing for about (4) years in the mid-eighties. Having a machinistbackground, I paid a bit more attention to the manufacturing processes. During my time with the company, I supervised in ProductionControl as well as the Welding and Assembly Departments. When thingsbroke lose at Manitowoc Cranes, they called me back. In time I ended upas one of their Supervisors in the Machine Shop, then MachineShop Superintendent. This role also evolved into working with ManitowocCrane Design Engineers, representing Machining, on the development of new models ofCranes. In time, I ended up being the new product development Team Lead on the Model 999 (250 ton) and 16000 (400 ton) Lift Cranes. A little over 4 years ago I was wooed away from ManitowocCranes to LDI Industries, as their Manufacturing Manager. They had just purchased another product line, "Vescor", and wanted to build anew manufacturing plant for that product. This new factory has what I would call (coming from manufacturing80-1200 ton lift cranes) a core process of "Light Fabrication". We installed (2) 4KW plate lasers capable of cutting up to 1" thickmaterial out of 6' X 12' sheets. Included with the lasers is fullautomation, full automatic loading and unloading of the sheets ofmaterial.The system also has the material storage system which is 25'high. This system consists of 16 trays capable of handling 6,000 poundsof sheet stock per tray. As I said, our Huntley Illinois primary focus is fabrication, our ManitowocWisconsinprimary focus is machining. Thelinkfor a closer look of our newly completed project is the through this YouTube link. This will be a virtual tour (by myself) so have fun.
I'm getting a bit long winded here but a last spring, my son Eric toldme that there was a Haban Users Group website established on Yahoo. I joined andlistened in on issues. I was under the impression, wrongfully so, that Agri-Fab was supporting loyal Haban customers when they purchased Haban Manufacturing (less the buildings) from the failed PolarisGroup, the group that purchased the company from my uncle in 1995. Muchto my dismay, it appears that Agri-Fab had turned its back onexistingHaban customers. I felt I could help to somedegree as I understandto Habans’ manufacturing processes, production parts and design intent, but am somewhat limited to model-specific information. I'll help anyone to theextent that I can.
I had found after getting involved with this Haban Users Group, that even the most basic information can be of help for many inquires. This perked my curiosity enough that I contacted Uncle Joe (now age 92). Joe told me that there was very little if anything left, but his, his Controller’s and his V.P. of Operations’ files were all “consolidated” into an “office” in building #4. After explaining to Joe that I was looking to help people with basic information pertaining to their unit, he thought that would be a worthy endeavor. Joe said that I could have anything left behind, which was a very good start, but far from complete. I made three trips down searching the complete plant for any information that could help. Everything in the plant was cleaned out; even paper trails which I was hoping to find in back corners, closets and so forth.
Uncle Joe kept a reasonable size file on the old Side-Mount Sickle Bars and early Snow Throwers that contained quite a few manuals. This has already helped out a few hobbyists that own Side-Mount Sickle Bars this past year. I purchased a scanner and scanned all about 80 manuals and have them accessible from the Haban Users Group website. I also have scanned about 50 color pieces of advertizing literature and about 80 original product photos from the Haban Tech Publication Department. I have many more manual to find. If you do not see your manual available from this website and have one for your attachment, please contact me. I’ll get a copy from you, scan it and make it available to everyone else to view or download.
My uncles V.P.’s files include the complete Deutz-Allis part number cross referenceto Haban part numbers. Additionally, I found a 1993-1994 and a 1994-1995 complete MAPICS printout of All-Sales, Whole Goods and Service Parts. I was pretty happy that I was able to find the old Haban Kardex (Production Control) files abandoned when everything was loaded onto MAPICS. These files, about 80 drawers, contained basic information on about 7,000 part numbers from day-1 to about the 17,000 part number range. I developed an Excel spreadsheet and loaded the 7,000 Haban Part Numbers and Descriptions along with any other pertinent information I could see from the cards. I am pulling the assorted Haban Part Numbers above the 17,000 range from the MAPICS printout “All-Sales, Whole Goods and Service Parts” sold for that year. This data entry is quite a bit more time consuming as they are not in part number order and do repeat quite a bit throughout the 4” thick printout which one would understand. I listed Haban Manuals across the top of the spreadsheet and checked off each Haban Part Number from the Parts Breakdown on this same spreadsheet. So, in essence, that Excel file is becoming a poor mans “Where-Used” for each part number. I have this accessible from the Yahoo-Haban Users Group website. I update the files periodically when I have enough additional information added. I found this database is being used! For example, more than once, people have looked for the Haban #3434 Spring that is missing from their Side-Mount Sickle Bar. They only have to scroll to the right across from the 3434 part number on the Haban Part Number Database, and they find the #3434 is also used on the Cub Cadet Snow Throwers. They have contacted Cub Cadet Dealers and found their needed parts for their Bolens and John Deere units!
On the home front, I have been married 30 years last July and have three sons, Eric, Elgin and Noah. Two of the boys are moved out of the house (ages 27 and 22), the third (twin age 27) has cerebral palsy and will be with my wife and I for the long run.
I live 3 miles north of Manitowoc on 5 acres. Half of that is woods, add the pond to that and I probably cut about 2 acres of grass. For yard work, I have a Kubota BX1500 (15 hp diesel) and use the plow for it,for snow removal. I have a brand new old-stock Haban/Cub Cadet 48” snow thrower that I want to adapt (mounting and drive) to the Kubota one of these summers. I also have a Haban Rear Mount 3-pt hitch Sickle Bar that hooks up to the Cat 1, 540 RPM tractor three point hitch.
I hope this helps give you an idea of how I fit into the Haban Manufacturing story,
Regards,
Erwin