Bremco have prided themselves on creating crane attachments from the initial design through to its attachment on the crane, working with some of the biggest rigging companies in the country, they continue to supply equipment to even the most challenging lifts.
Starting life as a sole trader business in 1996 the company has regularly identified opportunities for growth in its short history. Beginning as a general metal fabrication business it quickly pivoted to incorporate forklift products after recognising a gap in the market in Queensland.
After this initial step into the forklift sector it was just a hop, skip and a jump for Bremco to move into the crane sector.
Bremco now finds itself working closely with a range of lifting houses and on an array of projects tackling any challenge thrown its way. Bremco was recently asked to support Bullivants in Newcastle with the updated design and manufacture of a new lifting beam for Toshiba Australia.
This involved the manufacture of a 70t capacity lifting beam that could be adjusted in bottom slinging locations using a screw guide to adjust the lift eyes to suit both the Rotor and Stator assembly.
These assemblies form part of the internal components in the electrical generation system that is located at Bayswater Power Station. The Power station had a limited window for the installation of a new rotor and stator unit in Generator number 4 onsite and had asked Bullivants for support in purchasing the lift beam based on designs from Toshiba in Japan.
The Bayswater power station provides power for an estimated 2 million homes across New South Wales showing the importance of keeping the site online during this time.
Bremco ran with the drawing that was supplied and engaged its engineer for assistance in developing the new unit required for Muswellbrook. The project was completed with limited down time and allowed the new lift to take place on time and inside the budget allocated. Brett Moody explains how Bremco serves its clients.
“We are at the point now where it is not great quantities of our product we are putting out there, company’s come to us needing a solution like getting an excavator out of a hole and we take that brief and create a solution for them.
“As we entered the crane space we got the opportunity to work closely with Bullivants and Bunzl and that was fantastic for us to understand what is expected from us. We continue to work with both companies providing specialist gear,” Moody said.
Throughout covid, Bremco found itself completing more standard rigging gear as lead times ballooned out as the pandemic took hold as Moody explains.
“The standard equipment for cranes requires anyone manufacturing it to be qualified. All of our designs have to be engineer approved with a stringent testing regime, we brought an engineer on board to work in house to help us meet these requirements.
“We have access to our own testing rigs that allow us to complete all phases of our design and approvals in house which is a major benefit.
“Before covid a lot of the gear was being brought in from China and other countries and we simply could not compete with the price they were offering. Covid allowed it to be mixed up a bit and people started coming to us for their crane attachments,” Moody said.
“We are seeing now that a lot of these big sites turn to us as they can trust the testing has been completed. It is fantastic now that safety expectations are so high so it is one less headache for company’s when they come to us for crane attachments,” Moody said.
Bremco’s strict testing requirements include:
• Weld testing
• Utilise lifting company testing rigs that allows testing up to 100T load capacity
• Use hydraulic testing rigs with load cells
• Use dead weights to maximise load pressure
“When you look at that AS4911 or 2359, that’s standard for fourth and fifth attachments that they are fairly tight and they do require some engineering conformity, which we have been doing.
“We’ve been addressing it in our drawings, trying to address it in where we weld, by doing this it gives users a clear understanding of what has been done to meet standards and added peace of mind when they go out to site that the guys using it are safe and that they will not be holding up jobs for not meeting requirements,” Moody said.
Bremco can fabricate:
• Crane Drums
• Crane lift bins and devices
• Crane attachments
• Crane lifting cages
•Crane man cages
• General crane attachments
“We have reached the point where we have complete confidence in what we are sending to market so we can offer our 12-month warranty, it’s the benefit we have in that we manufacture in Australia so we can offer this peace of mind.
“We manufacture items in accordance with the new requirements in the Australian Standards for a Working Load Limit (WLL). This means that we have our engineering team design items with a minimum factor of 2 times the WLL. For example: If your frame is required to sustain a WLL of 1000Kgs then Bremco must design and engineer the frame to 2000Kgs WLL,” Moody said.