Crawler Cranes: Manufacturers Count on Products & Support for Sales

Looking forward to retain sales, crawler crane manufacturers continue to bank upon their existing and new products backed by newer service propositions. P.P. Basistha takes a look.

Demand for crawler lattice boom cranes continues to remain at modest levels in India. This is owing to retrograded growth in hydrocarbon energy and coal fired power sector. However, amidst the bearish trend, manufacturers have reported few fresh order bookings from renewable energy and infrastructure projects recently. Demand is increasingly being characterized by heightened price competition as buyers are yet to see optimal return on investments.

Sany Heavy Industry India will be expanding and strengthening its business share in the growing windmill sector with its SCC6500A, 650 tons crawler cranes. "We have delivered SEVEN units of 650 tons to LEADIND rental COMPANIES involved in windmill sector till OCTOBER 2016. We will be carrying out fresh deliveries of another 5 units by end of 2016." Informs Mr. Deepak Garg, CEO, Sany India.

He says, "The crane can work for windmill erection with hub heights between 90-120 meters. It is further scalable to work at higher hub heights of UPTO 140 meters with 144 meters boom and 12 meters fixed jib. The crane can work without super lift while working with 108 meters boom. The crane also scores on stability. This enables it to work at steep gradients." Safe load indicators, retractable tracks are the other added features.

Looking to build up sales, in the buoyant wind mill sector, Liebherr India is banking on its LR 1600/2, 600 tons crawler lattice boom crane. According to Mr. A. K. Somani, Director, Liebherr India, "LR 1600/2 in its new avatar is upgraded with reinforced boom systems to suit the present higher hub heights in accordance with the present day needs of the wind mill manufacturers along with heavier nacelles erection requirements at Higher Hub Heights."

Liebherr HS8100 Crawler Crane Dynamic Soil Compaction

He explains, "In its earlier stages, the crane was used mainly in SL3F boom systems (main boom plus jib without superlift) to suit the hub height requirements between 90-105 meters. With the nacelles weight going up along with commensurate increase in hub heights, the boom systems were upgraded to SL4 DFB. This was further modified to HSL4 DFB followed by higher capacity and longer boom SL10DFB and SL13DFB enabling the crane to work at hub heights between 120 to 150 meters depending on nacelle weight. The modification consisted of carrying out changes in the boom construction keeping dimensions unchanged so that boom sections can be transported without any problem and special RTO approvals. This makes LR 1600/2 highly flexible for wind mill erection as well as for other heavy lifts jobs, precisely in the refinery sector. Reinforced, extended boom configurations with H-kit enables the crane achieve higher load capacities. The upgraded boom configuration makes the crane not only flexible but also economical to own and operate and modify existing cranes as there is no change in basic crane. For new heavier or higher lifting requirements, the owner needs to get certain sections of the boom without carrying any changes in the basic structure of the crane."

He adds, New cranes coming to India are already fitted with new boom systems to meet all new requirements. The derrick ballast (Superlift) radius can be changed without steps so that user can erect and operate the crane as per space available at site. Even, the crane can be used with a new system B2 called "stringer" to achieve further longer Derrick ballast (Superlift) radius giving possibility of higher capacity and working with boom up to 156 m length.

The improvement on such crane is a continuous process and Liebherr is committed to help its customers to offer solutions to meet all future requirements to the extent possible.

Looking forward to retain sales in the lighter segment, Mr. Ghananeel Molankar, Sales Manager, Liebherr Construction Machinery says, "We have now made our product support cost competitive. This is a very new initiative of Liebherr India and has been very well accepted by our customers. We will now offer annual maintenance contracts to our customers at very nominal rates. Under the contract, we will be conducting four periodic inspections of the machinery in a year. This will involve visual inspection, trouble shooting and if required parts replacement. Customers will be gaining from this offer because as compared to the high servicing cost, which the customer earlier had to incur in a single inspection, they now would now be able to rationalize the servicing costs across the four periodic inspections."

The company has recently bagged an order for a single HS 8100 duty cycle crane. Mr. Molankar says, "We have received fresh enquiries for some more units within the capacity range of 250-300 tons."

Telcon will shortly discontinue manufacturing of its flagship, long tried and tested, Tata Friction Cranes (TFC) 280, 75, 45 tons duty cycle, mechanical cranes. According, to Mr. Jayakara Kalmadi, Senior Director Sales, Tata Hitachi, "The demand and technology of crawler cranes has moved forward from 75, 80 tons to 100 and 250 tons. Taking cue of the development, we will discontinue production of our TFC range of cranes and take on production of higher capacity, Hitachi-Sumitomo, 100 tons class, hydraulic cranes at our plant in Jamshedpur."

Sharing details of the new crane, Mr. Kalmadi informs, "The new crane on heavy duty structure will be equipped with heavy duty winches. This will enable the crane to undertake erection and heavy duty cycle jobs as well. The power packs for the crane will be imported from Isuzu, while booms, counterweights, and tracks will be sourced locally. Moving forward, the new crane will be more advanced in its features, with advanced safety cut off load limiters. Drum rotating sensors and interactive display systems providing on time details on the operation of the crane, involving running hours in the cabin, will be the new added features in the new 100 tons class crawler crane."

Telcon has been the exclusive distributor of Hitachi-Sumitomo, 80 tons crawler cranes in India. The company has marketed close to 60 units of the cranes in India across sectors like petrochemicals, energy and metro projects.

Tusker Cranes Pvt. Ltd., earlier known as ABG Cranes, has commenced commercial production of its 160 tons crawler cranes. Being manufactured at the company’s Ransai plant near Mumbai, the company has secured an order for a new unit. "The 1160 Tusker will be finding its application for erection and lifting both in general and industrial construction. This is the sole crane in its class to be manufactured in India with self erection and dismantling abilities. The feature will enable quicker set-up and decommissioning, resultantly enabling the crane owners to save on costs," says Mr. R.B. Pandey, GM, Sales, Tusker Cranes.

1160-Tusker crane lifts 160 mt at 5 meters radius with 18 meters boom length and 20 MT at 22 meters radius with 81 meters boom length. The new crane comes with 31 meters fixed jib and 51 meters luffing jib options. Ergonomically designed air conditioned cabin, and safe load indicators are its standard features.

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