Major engineering and fabrication business DIAB Engineering recently ordered a number of SANY hydraulic telescopic crawlers from Tutt Bryant Equipment, including a 250t SANY SCC2500TB, a 100t capacity SANY SCC1000TB and two 60t capacity SANY SCC600TBs. Ben Smit, Diab Engineering’s Manager of Engineering and Manufacturing, explains more.
For 50 years, DIAB Engineering has provided industrial maintenance and fabrication services to the mining and resources sector.
In addition to two fabrication workshops, DIAB Engineering maintains staff and permanent mining maintenance services operations at remote mining sites, working at multiple sites across Australia.
DIAB Engineering’s projects require significant cranage and the engineering business owns a fleet of all terrains. Over the years it has also dry hired various cranes from Tutt Bryant Heavy Lift and Shift.
“We operate our own cranes and crews and ever since I’ve been with the organisation, we have been dry hiring various capacity cranes from Tutt Bryant Heavy Lift & Shift. More recently, we dry hired a 250 tonne capacity hydraulic telescopic crawler, a SANY SCC2500TB, for the Kathleen Valley Lithium Project.
“With this project we built what we call a ‘dry plant’, which is a crushing and screening plant. We had five or six cranes on the project at any one time, and the SANY was the largest capacity crane.
Typically, when we get to site for a project like this, we are going to be there for anywhere between six months and two years, so we are deploying the cranes for a significant amount of time,” he said.
Image: DIAB Engineering
“Our first significant investment in the fleet was some 15 or so years ago and most of our cranes have been through their major 10 year inspections. Back then, telescopic crawlers were not that common, so we invested in various models and capacities of all terrains. But our recent experience with the SANY SCC2500TB highlighted that telescopic crawlers are ideal for our kind of work,” said Ben.
With the strongest lifting capacity and the longest boom in its class, the SANY SCC2500TB is an extremely versatile crane ideally suited for working in industry sectors such as construction and infrastructure, mining and resources, as well as energy and renewables.
The SANY SCC2500TB’s 75.4m boom is made of a high-strength steel structure with a U-shaped section area. It features seven sections with the basic boom at 14.4m and the maximum boom length at 75.4m.
The boom has full power with a single cylinder and plug for telescoping. The fixed jib measures 43m in length and can be installed at angles including 0°, 15° and 30°.
Safe operation is at the heart of the control systems for the SCC2500TB and this includes the Smart Integrated Load Moment Indicator (LMI).
The SYIC-II integrated control system has been independently researched and developed by SANY.
The system features a high level of integration and controls the power system to the crane, the engine system, the main control system, LMI, auxiliary system, and safety monitoring system.
Data communication between the controller, display, and engine is conducted by CAN bus technology.
The ergonomically designed SANY cab features the latest interfaces between the operator and the crane. The integrated 26.5cm touchscreen is programmable with ‘smart buttons’ to ensure the interaction between the operator and the machine are perfect.
The cab has been designed to offer as much full vision of the work site as possible.
The finger-tip controls and buttons are designed to enable more comfortable operations.
“DIAB Engineering has been providing solutions to the mining sector for 50 years. I’ve been with the business for 20 years and I am focused on the construction and maintenance of infrastructure such as processing plants for large mining operations. I am responsible for approximately 200 guys spread across two or three construction projects at any one time, and we have up to 20 cranes across these sites,” said Ben.
“Most of our work is processing plant-related, and it involves Structural, Mechanical and Piping (SMP) construction. Typically, we fabricate a processing plant in one of our ‘state of the art’ workshops, take it to site, put
it all together, stand the building up, install mechanicals and the pipework, put the cladding on and install electrical packages as well. We offer the full gamut of services,” said Ben.
According to Ben there are significant advantages with operating hydraulic telescopic crawlers.
“The SANY telescopic crawler proved ideal for our type of work and that’s why we decided to order four of them. With our work, we move the cranes around the site as elements of the project are completed. With the all terrains, we are packing up the counterweights, de-slabbing and re-slabbing every two or three days and this can take a lot of time even if you are only moving the crane 20 meters. With the telecrawlers, we don’t have to pack up the counterweights, we simply drive the cranes to where they are required next. Another advantage is the setup of the telecrawler is not necessarily driven by ground conditions,” said Ben.
Ben and his team have been impressed with the performance of the SANY and with the service and support they have received from Tutt Bryant.
“The performance of the SANY was beautiful, and we had no issues with reliability. It was a brand-new machine, so you expect the performance to be pretty good, but we not quite sure what to expect. But it worked out beautifully and we had issues with the crane for the best part of 12 months we had it out on that job. Our operators had no issues, it was straightforward and simple to use,” said Ben.
The new SANYs are additions to the existing fleet and Tutt Bryant have been very supportive throughout the hiring and sales process, said Ben.
“As I mentioned before, most of cranes date back to 2010 plus or minus a year or two when we bought a lot of cranes. They’ve all been through their ten year inspections and they’re still all working really well. The SANYs are all additions to the fleet.
“The support from the team at Tutt Bryant has been consistently excellent. Thanes is one of their operations and service guys working out of the Karratha branch. He is really easy to deal with, very helpful and always spot on with
the advice he provides. In terms of other general matters, there are another couple of guys we deal with down in Perth, who are also really easy to deal with and very responsive to any issues we might have.
“When you call, you know they’ll pick up straight away and if they can’t, they’ll call you back shortly after. We are finding this kind of response and commitment to service and support increasingly rare in the crane industry, so full credit to the team at Tutt Bryant for setting the bar high and continuing to maintain their high standards,”
said Ben