Buy,Buy,Buy.

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CRAWLERS

July/August 2000 Cranes & Access 17

Initial GWS, Weldex and Baldwinsare just three of the names buyingnew crawler cranes. This recentresurgence in the purchase of

crawler cranes is good news for manufac-

Miller CivilEngineeringchose the R-BInternationalCH50 fortunnellingwork

turers and it is set to continue. This ispartly attributable to the continuingboom in the construction market andpartly to pressure from the Health &Safety Executive which is urging compa-nies to replace mechanical cranes withhydraulic crawler cranes. The HSEbelieves that the old mechanical cranesare not as safe or reliable as the newmodern cranes, according to PhilipHodges sales director of E H Hassell.

“As far as technological advances areconcerned, the modern crawler cranesare inherently safer,” says DavidButterworth of the HSE. “We believemarket forces are equally responsible forthis trend.”

Crawlers are back in demand with hire companies buyingmachines in unprecedented numbers. Keren Sall asks why?.

GWS CraneHire hasbought two ofthese NCKAstra HC-90sseen here at SED.

Buy,Buy,Buy.

– Weldex is however, the only Britishcompany – has a lifting capacity of 140tonnes. High working loads are availableat all points on the boom due to theimproved stability of the basic machineand the generous dimensions of theboom itself. The maximum length of themain boom is 78.5m; the luffing jib canbe up to 52.1m long. An optional fixedjib with a length of between 11 and 22mand two positioning angles is also avail-able.

Since transport costs are an importantcriteria for buyers such as McGilvray thenew LR1140 has its own self-assemblysystem so an auxiliary crane is notneeded during loading, unloading andassembly saving on transportation.

Equally popular is Liebherr’s LR1250which is also fitted with the Liebherr self-assembly system which was launched in1998. Around 35 units of the machinehave been delivered to date but none inthe UK. The biggest in the Liebherrrange is the LR1800 – a 800 tonnecrawler – which was purchased byBaldwins and has worked on numerousprojects including the MillenniumStadium, Cardiff. The crane is currentlyworking in Venezula on the constructionof a new Sincor refining complex.

Manitowoc chose to exhibit atIntermat but not at SED and launchedits model 999. What’s so special aboutthe 999? According to Mark Marzion,director of marketing for Manitowoc, the999 has been designed with particularattention to transportation requirementsof its European customers. The widest

18 Cranes & Access July/August 2000

The demand for modern crawlercranes has led to a plethora of newmachines being launched at Intermatand SED and competition becomingfiercer among the players in the market.So buyers can afford to shop around.

Big spender Dougie McGilvary ofScotland-based Weldex has been doingjust that. Recent purchases include a630HR 30 tonne Sennebogen telescopiccrawler, a 450 tonne Dematic CC2500,two Manitowocs and a Liebherr LR1140as well as R-Bs. “The strength of thepound makes this the right time to buy,”he told C&A. “Plus customers are nowdemanding good modern machines. Sowe are looking to the future andbuying now. We want to get tothe stage where we don’t haveany machines that are morethan 12 years old.”

He cites the modular designof new cranes which makesthem easy to transport anderect as strong reasons forchoosing the new hydrauliccranes. “Compared with theold mechanical cranes they onlytake a quarter of the time toerect and the new cranes suchas the 600 tonne crawler withlattice boom can easily competewith the biggest mobile cranesas they have much betterground bearing pressure. Andthey are designed with cranework such as lifting rather thanduty cycle in mind whichmeans the new machines have alighter boom with a muchlarger radius.”

Manufacturers might also beinterested to learn thatMcGilvray is not planning toreplace crawler cranes under 50tonne with equivalent newones. Instead he will opt forones with slightly higher liftingcapacities because as he saysthey are not physically muchbigger and yet have a heavier ballast.“The difference in the dimensions andthe price between a 40 tonne and 60tonne crawler crane are negligible.”

Weldex placed its order for theLiebherr LR1140 at Intermat where thereclusive Willi Liebherr was persuadedto have his photograph taken withDougie McGilvray and Iain McGilvrayalongside the new crawler crane.According to Liebherr, a further 23orders have been placed for the LR1140

CRAWLERS

LiebherrLR1800cranes arebeing usedby Baldwinson the site of the newSincorrefiningcomplexbeingconstructedat Jose State ofAnzoategui,Venezula.

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Weldexopted for R-

B’s newCH135

crawler crane

transport module is under 3.0metres in width, which allows forsimple transport between jobs inmost countries, particularly inEurope. “At the same time wehave designed the crane so thatthe heaviest transport module is39554 kilogrammes greatly sim-plifying transport and permittingin North America.This focussedattention to transport issues iswhat made the M-250 such ahuge success, and we feel that itwill give the model 999 signifi-cant differentiation over its com-petition,” he says.

Another factor, he adds, thatis extremely important to cus-tomers is versatility. “The abilityto minimise investment and max-imise utilisation ties directly tofinancial return for all of our cus-tomers. To address this on the 999, wehave designed the 999 so that it is capa-ble of using two different booms – thenew No. 82 boom which has been devel-oped specifically for the 999 and the No .22 boom which is used on the model888, 4000W, and 4100W.”

The model 999 can be used withMax-er and Ringer attachments furtherincreasing utilisation and versatility. The999 utilises driveshafts for powering eachcrawler.

A new patent-pending crawlerensures that any 999 crawler shoe can befitted to either side of the carbody – elim-inating the possibility that the wrongcrawlers are shipped or assembled to acrane. So far, Marzion says 50 units havebeen sold.

Mannesmann Dematic also launcheda new crawler crane at Intermat this year.Its new CC2500 won the vote ofWeldex’s Dougie McGilvray who boughtthe 450 tonne machine during his recentspending spree. The CC2500 slotsneatly in the gap between the existing300 tonne CC1800 and 600 tonneCC2800. It has an intelligent engine sys-tem which gives a proportion of theavailable power to the relevant functions

e.g slewing, luffing and hoisting.GWS Crane Hire might be up for

sale, but it is still investing in newcrawlers. It is having its Manitowoc4100s remanufactured at a rate of one ortwo a year and at the same time it hasbought five new crawler cranes fromNCK Cranes – two of the new 90 tonneAstra HC-90s and three 65t Nova HC-65s. The Astra, which was originallydesigned as an 80 tonne machine, can befitted with 12 to 60 metres of main boomand with an 18 metres fly jib which canbe offset at up to 30 degrees. AndrewMakepeace, managing director of GWSsaid the company had chosen the Astrafor ease of transportation. Weldex hasalso purchased two Astra HC-90s.

The Astra HC-90 sports an all new

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CRAWLERS

July/August 2000 Cranes & Access 19

hydraulically based operating design;modern, high vision and ergonomicallylaid out cab interior, improved linespeeds, with a variety of line pull solu-tions ranging from 12,300kg for singleLift Cranes to 27,500kg for the DutyCycle Machines. This crane is alsohighly transportable, as the crawler unitis quickly and easily retracted to 3.5metres wide, fully rigged.

NCK’s Port Crawler Cranes are alsoenjoying a revival, with a growing inter-est being displayed in the market for itsrecently upgraded Nova HPC-65 range.It was relaunched in January this year.

Richard Baldwin, chairman ofBaldwins, was so impressed with Kobelco’snew 200 tonne capacity 7200 hydrauliccrawler crane he bought six of them. SaysDaisuke Fujiko, sales manager for Kobelcocrane products: “The Kobelco 7200crawler crane has an innovative boomdesign that lets you match lifting perfor-mance with the job at hand. With a choiceof four booms, heavy duty, light-duty, longand luffing tower, you get several machinesin one all powered by an engine that delivers 200 tonne performance.”

H M Plant, distributor for Hitachicrawlers, has also been busy. It hasreceived an order for six 50 tonne CX500s from Birse Plant Hire.

R-B International has had some diffi-cult times and now has managed somesignificant sales. It has sold machinesboth to Weldex and Miller CivilEngineering. Weldex bought its newCH135 crawler crane which has a lift

Dematic’s new450 tonne

CC2500 crawlerslots neatly in the

gap between its existing 300 tonne

CC1800 and

600 tonneCC2800.

The Manitowoc999 has been

launched to meetthe transportation

requirements ofEuropean

customers.

The newLiebherrLR1140

should prove abig seller since

it has its ownself-assembly

system.

(continued on page 31)

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CRAWLERS

July/August 2000 Cranes & Access 31

capacity of 136 tonnes and maximum luffingfly combination of 60 metres of main boomand 48 metres of fly jib. Maximum capacityof the luffing fly jib is 60 tonne.

Donald Steele, plant manager for MillerCivil Engineering, had been looking forcrawler cranes with a rigorous duty cyclewhich he believes are ideal for tunnelling“There was nothing in the market so we werelooking for manufacturers willing to carry outmodifications for us. We were looking for a

16 tonne cycle from ashaft 24 metres deep tolift loads 6 metres aboveground and then backdown the shaft. Paul Rossfrom R-B was able to dothat for us.”

As a result Steele hasbought three 50 tonne R-B machines, a 70 tonnerand a 200 tonner carryingout work on tunnellingprojects in Hull,Hastings, Folkestone or sinking shafts inTorquay. And as from the end of July, Millerwill cease using mechanical cranes. “It iscompany policy so we will be just usinghydraulic cranes from then because they aremuch more efficient and safer.”

Small crawler cranes are also selling. Acompact SMC CX800 Starlifter 9 tonnecrawler crane bought by Ainscough was usedby Kvaerner Construction at Severn Water’sCrankley Point sewage treatment works inNewark, where it was used on the river Avondirectly under the main Coast Line, installingsteel pipes. Kato is also focussing on thesmaller end with its new mini-crawler rated at8 tonne. Built to be highly manoeuvrable, ithas lifting capacities at 2 metres of 8 tonneswith outriggers, 4.45 tonnes without outrig-gers. Kato is also selling even smaller Maedamini crawlers ranging with capacities 1tonne, 3 tonne and 4 tonne.

With so much choice in the market as wellas competition between the manufacturersthis year may be the best time to upgrade yourfleet. So buy, buy, buy!. ■

This SMCCX800

Starlifter 9tonne crawler

has beenhired by

Kvaerner towork on a

barge underthe RiverAvon atSevern

Water’sCrankley

Point sewagetreatmentworks inNewark

Impressed hemust have

been! RichardBaldwin,

chairman ofBaldwins,

bought 6 new200 tonne

Kobelco7200

crawlers

(continued from page 19)