The MRT234 flat top tower crane was the first to be officially unveiled in October 2017, and the feedback from end users, according to Strictly Cranes, has been overwhelmingly positive. The second new model, which is the company’s flagship crane in the new luffing range, is the LR330 with a triangular jib.
“One really strong aspect is that only two people are needed to completely assemble the MRT234’s jib over a period of a few short hours. This crane boasts nine different jib lengths, ranging from 70m to 28m,” said Eng. Domenico Ciano, technical director at Raimondi Cranes.
Turning to the LR330, Ciano said: “We set out to design a luffer that could surpass market expectations – our R&D segment clocked 4500 hours alone on the LR330’s mechanical and control system designs. The LR330 spent 12 months in design stage, including the conceptualisation of the crane’s new winches.
“Both the LR330 and the MRT234 were presented at Intermat 2018 in Paris, together with the Deluxe R16 Crane Cabin and the SL20-TC Crane Elevator.”
The arrival of these tower cranes in Australia is timely.
“The local market, based on what we are seeing with our clients and from overall market sentiment, is that developers are favouring heavier-lifters,” said Ramey Alkhoshaibi, founder and commercial director at Strictly Cranes.
“We are noticing that this trend is directly linked to versatility of use and return on investment. The heavier lifters can be put to use on a wider variety of jobsites.
“The development boom, including the increasing numbers of high level residential and commercial buildings, and the push on lower level apartment blocks, both can be serviced by bigger cranes.”
And Raimondi remains committed to the Australian market, having extended every possible support mechanism to the region.
“On a weekly basis, we are seeing our cranes at work across the country; to facilitate our agents’ service offerings we have even sent Raimondi technicians from our Italian headquarters to Australia,” Ciano said.
“Regarding the shift in ordering patterns, we have noticed that, and we’re pleased to be able to fulfil our agent requests and help them to meet client needs. It varies of course from region to region, but we are very confident and filled with pride when our ever-increasing market share is addressed.
“Strictly Cranes are really neck and neck in terms of success stories. We are always receiving new queries from both Australian agents, and we’re extremely proud of how they have both positioned Raimondi’s cranes so pervasively.”
The new machines have already been sold to various fleet rental companies and developers in the country. In October last year, Strictly Cranes sold three new Raimondi tower cranes to residential builder-developer Piety THP. The two MRT159s with 1.7m masts, and the 10t MRT152 with a standard mast section, are scheduled to be onsite and operational for a period of three years.
“We recommended the MRT159s for this jobsite as this tower crane can be climbed to heights that other heavy lifting machinery can’t,” Alkhoshaibi said.
“On this particular jobsite, One The Waterfront, the cranes are tasked with lifting rebar, precast panels, and other site materials like timber, formwork and scaffolding. The cranes will also hoist excavators out of the hole, and other heavy machinery as needed.
“We don’t just provide a crane, we provide the labour and the lifting accessories including Boscaro brick cage, manbox, kibbles for concrete together with the first aid cage as required safety site regulations,” Alkhoshaibi added.
Strictly Cranes also erected the first-ever LR213 luffing crane in the country in a mixed-use residential and commercial development by ALAND, situated in Liverpool. The crane is scheduled to be onsite for approximately two years.
“Pre-erection of the LR213, which included basic preparation like setting up the electrical wires, galvanised balconies, greasing bolts and more, took one full day,” Alkhoshaibi said.
“We recommended the LR213 to ALAND as the project is in a congested location – it’s surrounded by other high-rise buildings that will be built over the course of the next few years.
“The luffer is to be climbed to a final height of 100m so the LR213 is ideal. It has a high free stand with the additional booster tower, allowing for minimal climbing and bracing of the crane to the building, thereby increasing overall jobsite productivity and meeting our client’s timeline needs.”
Moving forward, Raimondi has a third upcoming product launch on the horizon where they will be introducing their first ever hydraulic luffer, the LRH174, which Ciano says is quite a big step forward for Raimondi.
“The LRH174 is now in agent pre-sell stage, and soon will be introduced to the wider market. The details I can share with you now are the reduced out-of-service radius. It is a major advantage of this crane, as it is only 10m when compared with a traditional luffer at minimum double that radius,” Ciano said.
“The hydraulic LRH174 boasts much easier installation, similar to that of flattop tower cranes, due to the lack of A-frame and tie rods used in traditional luffers.”
This article was originally published in the July/August issue of Cranes and Lifting.