Rough terrain crane manufacturers are giving a facelift to their products in line with the new market regulations and changing application requirements, with emphasis on safety. P.P. Basistha looks at the improvisations being made.
Unlike the wider appeal of all-terrain and truck cranes that have higher mobility, rough terrain cranes (RT) have a more focused usage in India. They are commonly used for general construction, material handling, steel erection, low-rise apartment construction, and also in refinery, mining, maintenance and repair work. Since RTs have restricted mobility, rental agencies prefer to use them mainly for long-term contracts. Long-term deployment would require them to be highly productive and have a better load-out as they will be expected to perform varied lifting jobs within a single job site.
He adds, “Our newly developed Smart Chart taps the potential of the crane by expanding the circular conventional area into a square one, thereby, improving work safety and efficiency.”
Tadano India offers product support through trained service personnel, and stocks spare parts at its warehouse in Bangalore. From April this year, the company has set up advanced processes to fasten delivery of spare parts and services. It has an active fleet of 200 units working in India, and markets its RT cranes of 13 MT – 145 MT from its global platforms.
Elaborating further, he says, “Both the cranes score high on safety and stability due to Liebherr’s award-winning VarioBase feature that allows the cranes to arbitrarily spread the outriggers, even on heavily undulated grounds. The VarioBase system automatically examines the ground, following which, it calculates the load chart to have the right load out and center for gravity for the cranes. This prevents toppling of the crane when lifting loads. Higher safety and lifting capability are also due to the oval boom profile which offers maximum stability during bending and torsion. The cranes with hydraulic powered steering on both the axle and rear differential lock provision and hydraulically shiftable. Both the cranes have Liebherr’s patented Liccon electronic computer control systems which makes the operation friendly and establish the Liebherr rough terrain crane as a most reliable partner for your progress.”
The indigenous range of RT Cranes - Husky RT 620 (20-ton), RT 630 (30 ton), RT 740 (40 ton), RT 750 (50 ton), RT 760 (55 ton) and RT 880 (75 ton) – are manufactured by TIL at its Kamarhatty facility in Kolkata. Bhatia adds, “At TIL we pay a lot of attention to the safety parameters of our equipment, and strictly comply with ARI regulations and other Govt. stipulations.”
“To support the rising population of RTs, we have also stepped up our hiring of service engineers and are adding more mobile workshops for onsite support. We will continue to offer our annual operation and maintenance contracts,” says Bhatia.
While its commendable to have the new range of RT cranes, featuring higher levels of advancements. It will be vital to render the right product support, enabling the customers have optimized usage of the machineries.
