45 APRIL 2015 ACT

SPMTS PRODUCT FOCUS

John Skelly speaks to

manufacturers and users

about the versatile nature

of the SPMT.

the dock where they will be picked up and mounted on the vessel. Once on the vessel, the cranes will be used to load and unload cargo and support the day-to-day operations of the offshore company who purchased them.

Berard’s new Generation 4 Scheuerle SPMT was 2.4 meters wide with 1.4 meter axle spacing, complete with electronic steering and remote control operation. The 44 axle lines used were a lot more capacity than they needed. The gross capacity of 44 axle lines is far more than the 600 tons the pedestal crane weighed, but the crane had a tremendously offset center of gravity. As a result, Berard added some length to the transporter to keep the load secure.

“We wanted to diversify our fleet and we’re pretty happy with it,” said Braedon Berard, COO, Berard Transportation. “We welcome Scheuerle’s fleet. We’ve been utilizing them quite a bit.”

When it comes to modern marvels, Berard holds the SPMT in high esteem.

“It’s the best piece of heavy transport equipment that’s ever been invented,” he said. “For as diversified as it is, anything

L ast December Berard Transportation purchased their first fleet of Scheuerle

self-propelled modular transporters, or SPMT for short. The new Generation 4 Scheuerle SPMTs were put to use almost immediately, transporting the first two of four 600-ton MacGregor pedestal cranes to a storage facility at the Theodore Industrial Port in Theodore, AL by the end of February.

To move each crane, Berard’s crew used 44 axle lines of Scheuerle SPMT and two power packs. The cranes were loaded onto the Scheuerle SPMT and then traveled a quarter of a mile to the storage facility. There they were jacked down using 12 of Berard’s 200-ton climbing jacks. The transport took about an hour to complete.

The third and fourth cranes will be transported by Berard during the month of May. Once all four cranes are in storage, they will remain there for roughly 12 months while the vessel they’re to be loaded on is finished being constructed. When that time comes, Berard will be involved in transporting the four cranes back out of storage and over to

you can transport on paper, you can move with an SPMT.”

OriginsScheuerle is regarded as the inventor of the SPMT. That is, what has become known as the standard dimension SPMT: 8-feet wide and either four or six axle units. According to Roland Fischer, area sales manager for Scheuerle, these dimensions make up about 90 percent of the market currently. Scheuerle came up with this model in 1983. The electronic steering capability they became known for was actually born out of a different transportation innovation, shipyard transporters, which are much wider and longer.

The idea was to create a bigger transporter out of small pieces to accommodate different sized loads. One hundred axle lines together could move a whole oil rig, coupled end-to-end or side-by-side, and a few axles lines could move something much smaller.

“Anyone can build a transporter for one need, but the idea was to have it in small segments and put it together as you need it,” said Fischer. “Then, as usual, different customers came to us with different ideas. The breaking point was people wanted to have the technology but needed to be able to move it, to mobilize it at a low cost, and that was the key to success.”

The more people started to see what the SPMT was capable of, the more it caught on. It developed its own market, and as cranes continued to advance technologically, the two pieces of >46

Berard Transportation moves a 600 ton pedestal crane at an

Alabama industrial port.

More lines, larger capacities

24 axle lines of Goldhofer’s PST/ES/E.

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PRODUCT FOCUS SPMTS

equipment paired nicely on increasingly heavier and more difficult jobs.

“Engineers would say hey, there’s this equipment out there, there is a way to move it,” said Fischer. “So really, together as cranes got stronger and stronger, the SPMTs allowed the industry to build bigger and bigger. And they’re still growing. Since hey, no problem, put eight SPMTs under it instead of six.”

Reliability is what Scheuerle depends on. If one transporter doesn’t function, the complete system doesn’t function. Software, then, is where SPMTs will continue to get more advanced. As Fischer said, you grow with your customers.

“It’s all about the software,” he said. “You have a computer system and your customer comes to you and says ‘Hey we want to use it this way or that way, we have an SPMT here and here, how do we program them to talk?’ Software development goes on and on and we learn from our customers. They come with the needs, we find a solution.”

Scheuerle has built 12,500 axle lines of the 8-foot SPMT. Fischer, who has been in the industry eight years, guesses that’s about 80-85 percent of the market. Recently they came up with an “arctic” version that can operate in -40 F as well as tropical conditions and a “fast” version that can travel up to 14 mph, depending on the payload. As well, they’ve about doubled the capacity the 8-foot SPMT since the 1980s.

Scheuerle is one of three companies that belong to Transporter Industry International (TII Group).

60 tons per axleCuneo, Italy-based Cometto manufactures a line of three SPMTs, with a fourth currently in the works. The MSPE 40T, MSPE EVO 50T and the MSPE EVO2 60T have 40, 50 and 60-ton capacities, respectively, and a 70-ton model has undergone testing. All models are interchangeable and linkable complete with electronic steering and two options

for wireless remotes. The MSPE EVO2 60T was released

in 2012 and is unique to Cometto. They’ve sold more than 1,000 axle lines of this model in three years. It offers the maximum capacity per the 1.4mm axle spacing configuration: 60 tons per axle. These SPMTs are currently being used on the Panama Canal expansion project.

Cometto MSPE EVO2 60Ts will transport 16 new gates, each one roughly 100 feet high, 200 feet long and up to 4,000 tons. The move will cover a little over two miles per trip.

According to Trey Little, an agent for Cometto in the U.S., Cometto is branching out with a handling technlogies product line called “Cometto HT.”

“These will be smaller units, same sort of design, but lighter capacities for indoor spaces like warehouses,” said Little. “Some are completely automated, they’ll follow white stripes on the ground and things like that. They even designed an

explosion-proof model.”Cometto has been producing SPMTs

since the 1980s along with Scheuerle and Goldhofer.

Flexibility pays offLast year Goldhofer introduced electronic steering to their 8-foot wide SPMT.

“The higher bending moment, additional side stability, the higher speed of operation and the usage of standard components like tires and rims are some of the key features of this equipment,” said Rainer Auerbacher, area sales manager, heavy duty modules, Goldhofer. “Besides that, Tier IV final engines and all the related standards are also available nowadays.”

The SPMT market is truly global according to Auerbacher. The demand for equipment in Europe is comparable to North America. As well, there are some units in Latin American and South America albeit far less than Europe and North America.

“Nonetheless, huge transport companies based in Europe and North America are

Berard purchased a fleet of Scheuerle Generation 4, 8-foot wide SPMTs in December, 2014.

>48

Cometto MSPE EVO2 60T transporting a new gate for the Panama Canal.

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acting worldwide,” he added. “Thus the final work destination is not so easy to identify and due to the long lifetime of the equipment, the equipment is working everywhere during its utilization period.”

Transporting SPMTs across the globe became a bit of an issue in the 2000s. Due to reclassification of Customs codes, SPMTs were being charged a 25 percent duty tax upon arrival in the United States. This caused all sorts of problems for the importer and exporter alike because it wasn’t clear who was on the hook for that large sum of money. Just recently was it resolved and SPMTs can again be imported duty-free.

“Luckily the change of the harmonized code of the self-propelled equipment is now sorted and the new code gives more stability into the process again,” said Auerbacher. “The unclear defined code over the last years caused an uncertainty, which made some decisions slower and held back a few investment plans.”

In the past, some of these big moves now carried out by SPMTs were done with traditional trailers. In this day and age, contractors have more options. The more complicated a move is, the more likely it

is to be done by SPMT, as long as it’s not going too far.

“The flexibility of modular systems is unbeatable and as soon as flexibility is required, there is no different option for real heavy moves,” said Auerbacher. “Surely there are different types of equipment available in the market, which however serves different applications and has different requirements, but there is a certain development that more and more transport tasks are done with modular equipment, which was done with different trailers in the past.”

The SPMT technology essentially sells itself. Goldhofer’s domestic and international markets continue to grow.

Their axle lines can be seen all over the world.

“The high quality of the equipment with all its technical features together with the performance of the people working at Goldhofer is what sets apart Goldhofer equipment,” said Auerbacher. “For each transportation task, Goldhofer has an individual solution to make the customer successful.”

Another manufacturer pushing flexible solutions is Faymonville out of Belgium. Their new PowerMax modular vehicle fills in where traditional heavy-load tractors no longer have sufficient pulling force to move extremely heavy loads. They offer two different systems, the APMC

Enerpac entered the SPMT market seven years ago.

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PowerMAX and the SPMC PowerMAX. The APMC has three modes, trailer,

assist and SPMT, while the SPMC is more of a classic self-propelled unit. The SPMC system is based on a user-friendly system that includes a customizable remote. Each operator can monitor the data that is most important to them by configuring the remote the way they see fit.

The newcomerEnerpac entered the SPMT market about seven years ago to fill a need in the

industry for compact SPMTs capable of maneuvering in tight locations. Enerpac SPMTs have been sold globally and are being used in both developed and emerging markets. They currently have SPMTs in North America, The Middle East, Africa and Europe.

“SPMTs are such a versatile tool and as heavy lifting and transport projects become more complex, new applications are always evolving,” said Tony Johnson, integrated solutions product manager, Enerpac. “For example as Accelerated

Bridge Construction (ABC) has gained in popularity so has the use of SPMTs.”

The Enerpac SPMT features a minimized height and slim design, which makes it easy to operate in confined spaces and makes it a good solution for in-plant applications. Enerpac’s SPMT customers come from a variety of markets including oil & gas, power generation, infrastructure and manufacturing.

They recently updated their Intelli-Drive wireless control system to offer greater flexibility when customizing SPMT configurations, as well as upgraded the SPMT to meet strict standards for use in nuclear power plants.

Although Enerpac is headquartered in North America, their primary manufacturing facility for building

Cometto’s MSPE EVO2 60T SPMT is involved in the Panama Canal expansion project.

The story goes like thisImporting self-propelled modular transporters (SPMTs) into North America hasn’t always been a breeze. There are Customs rulings on SPMTs going back to the early 1990s. Initially, they were classified under the heading 8709 (the first four digits of the Customs code), the same heading as work trucks, or trucks that are not fitted with lifting or handling equipment. As such, SPMTs were duty-free.

In the late 1990s, Canadian importers brought forth an inquiry regarding the 8709 heading to the World Customs Organization (WCO), specifically the bit about not being fitted with lifting or handling equipment. SPMTs actually are fitted with lifting equipment, and when the WCO revisited the topic they reclassified SPMTs under a new heading labeled 8427. This is the same heading used for things like fork lifts and other trucks fitted with lifting equipment.

SPMTs remained under the 8427 heading until 2011 when once again their status was revisited by the WCO. This time around, the WCO came to the conclusion that SPMTs were designed to move heavy things from one place to another, and therefore should be under the 8704 heading, for motor vehicles for the transport of goods. Unfortunately for anyone trying to import an SPMT, this new heading brought with it a 25 percent Customs duty.

“This posed a particular problem because Customs is supposed to give the public a period of notice when they change the classification of these things,” said Michael Snarr, attorney and partner at BakerHostetler in Washington D.C. “This came as a huge surprise to the members of the SC&RA. Suddenly you’ve got a small business that’s trying to pay a $1 million Customs duty on the spot without any notice it wasn’t going to happen.”

Snarr approached Customs on behalf of his client, an SC&RA member, to challenge the classification of SPMTs in U.S. ports. “We told them they didn’t have the classification right and in addition, you’re required by law to give public notice on a change in classification,” he said.

Once Snarr and the SC&RA raised these issues, Customs basically told them they weren’t sure what the heading for SPMTs should be but they definitely didn’t give the proper notice for the change. For the time being they would revert back to the old, duty-free heading until a decision could be made.

“So I worked with Joel [Dandrea] and we got some members together and went to customs to explain why these things aren’t motor vehicles,” said Snarr. “We showed them a video of how SPMTs work and I think at that meeting they really saw what we were talking about.”

So two and a half years later on Feb. 4, 2015, after all the litigation, research and rumination, Customs issued a document that spelled out their final decision. The way they saw it, SPMTs belonged under heading 8427, the same duty-free heading as forklifts that they were classified under for almost a decade between the late 1990s and late 2000s.

“At a time when the country was still trying to shake off some of the economic recovery problems, it was hard to understand why the government would put this 25 percent tax on these machines,” said Snarr. “The SC&RA is a lot of small business, so if you’re supporting small businesses as the backbone of the economy, you had to get this right.”

And they did. For now.

Goldhofer’s PST/ES/E.

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systems used in heavy lifting applications (including SPMTs) is located in the Netherlands.

“Most of our customers purchase our SPMT for their own use but some are open to rental,” said Johnson. “We see this as an opportunity to build brand awareness and to have customers familiarize themselves with our products, which we hope leads to greater sales.”

Enerpac is keeping a close eye on the reclassification of the SPMT’s duty code as well.

“Regarding the tariff charges, U.S. Customs has decided to classify SPMTs, for the time being, under a duty-free code,” said Johnson. “The unique features of SPMTs make interpretation of which tariff code to use an interesting debate.” ■

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