Hardiquip recently installed the first Jarlway hydraulic luffing tower crane, the JTL100 C6, on a suburban construction site in Mosman on Sydney’s North Shore.
The crane was installed twelve months after being ordered by Hardiquip’s Steve Hardiman, as part of a year-long collaboration with Jarlway to finetune the JTL100’s design specifically for the Australian market.
“The crane was thoroughly tested at the Jarlway factory – once it arrived in Aus, it was assembled and prepared at our yard where we took the opportunity to familiarise and train our techs on the new equipment before it was mobilised to the customer’s project,” said Steve Hardiman.
The site in Mosman presented multiple challenges. In terms of crane selection, the key constraints were the narrow footprint of the site and the necessity to avoid over sail of the neighbouring properties. As for mobilisation and demobilisation, the challenges lay in the tight, narrow urban street and the uneven ground. With its minimum radius of 4.2 metres and its hydraulically powered luffing jib, the JTL100 C6 was uniquely qualified to meet these requirements.
“We can put [the jib] up in five-metre sections as opposed to trying to get a 30-metre run, which was very difficult as there was no room to do that on this particular site. Also, we could deliver all the components to site on rigid trucks with no semi-trailers required. The heaviest lift is 3.8 tonne, so we didn’t need a massive mobile to put it up either. The crane takes about six hours to install and commission. It’s been performing really well, and as yet we haven’t had to go back to site. It should be there for the next 12 months,” said Steve.
Hardiquip and Jarlway share a longstanding collaborative relationship. Paul Guo, Jarlway’s International Business Development Manager, has visited Sydney numerous times to engage with the Hardiquip team, leading to the creation and refinement of crane models specifically designed for the Australian market.
“Paul Guo has been with Jarlway for more than 15 years, and most of the key people at Jarlway have been there since the beginning. If you visit other manufacturers you’ll meet lots of people, but two years from now, they’ll have moved on and will be working in other areas of the industry, building or selling different construction equipment and you’ll have to start again each time. The Jarlway team know the details of every machine they have made,” Steve said.
“The people at Jarlway are crane people and they’re passionate about their product. The development process for the JTL100 C6 was fairly straight forward. The engineers put the basic geometry of the crane together, and we took a group over in July of last year to test that model and iron out any issues with it, before it got shipped to Australia. The second unit is on its way to Sydney and will be out working by the end of 2025.”
Beyond Hardiquip, other Australian companies are integrating Jarlway cranes into their fleets. Tasmanian crane company Becket Industrial has just placed an order for its second JTL315 H18 rope luffing tower crane. Pete Jenkins, Director of Becket Industrial, recently travelled to the Jarlway factory with the Hardiquip team to discuss the implementation of some minor upgrades to the new unit before it is shipped to Tasmania.
“We had Pete review the first crane and let us know of any changes he wanted – primarily to make it more rigger-friendly and easier to transport. All this information had been communicated back to Jarlway.
“I have had the opportunity to travel the country and work with other Jarlway owners as they bring new cranes into their fleet. I have accidentally become the voice of the Australian Jarlway owners.
“The factory has been incredibly responsive to the feedback we have provided during the build of our second JTL315. The changes are subtle but well thought out and will be well received. I expect the new 315 to well and truly stamp its authority in the Australian market. By any measure this is a class leading crane,” said Pete from Becket.
“As a manufacturer, Jarlway is keen to hear customer feedback from international markets like Australia to help with re-engineering specifications and features on the cranes. They want to know what the end-users want.