Tower Cranes Gaining Efficiency

P.V.Ramdev, Managing Director, Everest Engineering Equipment, gives an insight into the tower crane market, its demand trend, in-built safety and sustainable features, operator training program, maintenance services, rental business prospects, and financing options.


What is the market size in terms of units and value of TCs in India? What is the expected growth by 2020?
The market demand was 550-600 units last year, and has come down to 350-400 units this year. We expect that the demand will increase from 2017-18 and may touch 1000-1200 units by 2020.

What are the major growth drivers and what capacity/reach of cranes will be more in demand?
As per the current situations in India, the growth is coming from the Real Estate sector which includes the low cost pre-cast housing also. More demand will be from 25-100 floor buildings which needs 10-16t range of tower crane due to shift in form work.

What are the latest product trends in terms of different configuration and applications?
For high-rise buildings with latest form work, the trend is towards the Luffing cranes and in some special case, the requirement is for Flat-top tower cranes.

What are the major challenges in market growth?
A major setback is the slowdown of apartment sales and slow development of low cost pre-cast houses in India. More concentration on infra development, delays in 100 new cities land acquisition, are also a reason.

Is the rental segment expected to drive demand?
Construction Equipment rental is showing a steady growth and will grow similarly even though it is a highly competitive market. New players in the rental market have to struggle a little due to the lack of proper service & spare parts support. However, it is showing a growth trend in the market.

How visible is the shift towards advanced control system-based, and more fuel efficient TCs?
We offer the latest technology of PLC + VFD combination of control system, which will save about 35% of diesel consumption amounting to Rs.8-9 lakhs per year on a 6t tower crane. Most of the construction companies are burning this much of diesel due to improper knowledge, selection & saving little initial purchase cost.

New Technology	Old Technology

Everest, apart from offering latest technology cost-effective tower cranes from SYM, educates the customers to modify their existing tower cranes to VFD-based fuel saving technology. JMC Projects Ltd. has converted 36 tower cranes to our latest technology and saved Rs.3 crores last year.

Perhaps, a tower crane is most exposed to the velocity of wind. What are the safety measures in-built in the design of TCs?
SYM tower cranes are designed to sustain very high wind velocity. The best and powerful technology in slewing operation (Rotating Operation) is with RCV control. The VFD slewing system can also cross the wind if the design of the mechanism & VFD program match together to meet the permissible operational wind velocity. Otherwise, the crane cannot cross the wind with a lifted load, and has to stop operation many times a day. If heavy wind is in the same direction of rotation, then it is very difficult to stop the rotation at desired location. Therefore, an eddy current braking system is necessary on the slewing operation. During the holidays and non-working days, a weather wane system has to be actuated to make the crane rotate freely according to the direction of wind. The display boards on the counter jib are meant for the balancing of weather wane. And some customers who are modifying this board to display their company name / project name, are actually calling them operational accidents.

Safety is also dependent on the operator and on proper maintenance, which is not in the hands of OEMs. What initiatives has Everest taken to ensure safety?
We are a CRISIL rated, ISO certified tower crane Service Company in India. We ensure proper installation of tower crane, training to operators / maintenance technicians and regular health check up within warranty. If any customer needs operation & maintenance contract, we also undertake the same. We always instruct the site safety department to physically crosscheck the maintenance and safety checks done by operator / maintenance team. We also maintain an operation & maintenance log book, to be checked & signed by supervisor / engineer every day.

There seems to be a shift towards operator-centric design - especially the cabin/its ergonomics/ control system/visibility and safety etc. How this shift is been reflected in cabin design of Everest Engineering TCs?
We are offering wide vision cabins with reduced vibration fitment. Our operating systems are suitable for very slow placement of loads accurately on the construction locations. We also offer the anti collision devices combined with Safe load indicating controllers (SLIC) as an optional feature. We also offer tower crane hook camera system up to a height of even 600m. This camera is suitable for outdoor use, with radio control for focal change from operator cabin and is battery operated. This battery is charged by solar panels fitted all together with camera in the moving trolley.