For more than 30 years, XCMG has been manufacturing outrigger crane pads that are used in many applications around the globe. XCMG first used the pads in its own crane test yards to spread the heavy loads, and when customers came to view the cranes, they enquired about purchasing the pads. The rest, as they say, is history. Stephen Broomfield, General Manager XCMG Oceania Crane Center, explains more.
“XCMG manufacture the largest cranes in the world, so it makes sense that they have an extensive range of pads, and they do,” Stephen said. “But the range is broad and many of the pads are ideal for the Australian crane industry. We still use wooden planks for outriggers but overseas, where the ground is not well prepared, they use these extra-large outrigger pads.”
XCMG pads were previously manufactured with fork pockets enabling a forklift or telehandler to load and unload them from a trailer. Today, they are manufactured with lifting trunnions providing a more effective means of loading and unloading with a crane.
Stephen said the original design of the pads included two pockets for fork tines, but the XCMG design team, which included an Australian engineer, conducted an extensive review and realised the cavities weakened the weight bearing capabilities of the pads. They also realised that removing the fork pockets and adding lifting trunnions was more cost effective to manufacture.
“Our newest size pads in the XCMG range are manufactured to match the footprint of a 20-foot container and feature two twist-lock pockets vertically in each corner, enabling the pads to be locked together in a stack. There are advantages with this size of pad and twist-lock feature,” said Stephen.
“XCMG crane pads can be of immense benefit when it comes to transporting all the necessary equipment when you mobilise a crane of any description. Let’s take a flat-bed trailer. You’ve already got the weight of the trailer and when you put the pads on and maybe your fly jibs and counterweights you will be at the permitted weight limits.
“If you take a 40-foot Skel trailer, which is the lightest form of trailer, you can lock two of these pads together which become the 40ft base of the trailer. You then have a flat-bed trailer on which you put the counterweights, hooks and fly jibs, significantly reducing your transport costs.
“You could put a stack of these, four high, and they would be half the height of a 20-foot container. You might need to move a 20-foot container full of rigging gear. You can twist lock one of these pads to the trailer and put the container on top of your pad, then twist lock again. That’s the idea behind the 20-foot container size option. Also using ‘pigs ears’ on the corner of the pad, which are the lifting devices that work with twist locks, you can lift like a conventional container weighing 40 tonnes or even more.”
Stephen said XCMG is in the process of arranging to destructively test one of these new style pads to understand what they are capable of. The plan is to put weight, probably five times more than expected, and lift it off the ground and destroy it.
Stocks of XCMG crane pads are in the country and ready to be shipped to interested customers.
“We’ve been selling outrigger crane pads for some time, and they’ve been delivered all over the country. To date we have been selling the smaller end of the range to all manner of crane hire businesses, but we do encourage interested businesses to give us a call to discuss the range,” Stephen said.
“We receive regular deliveries from the factory, so availability isn’t a problem. If you are interested in the larger pads, it will take the factory 25 days to manufacture with the in-house cutting and welding robots and have them ready for dispatch. Then there’s the shipping time.
“Compared to other brands on the market, XCMG pads are extremely competitively priced, and a significant number of enquiries have come from businesses that have seen them being operated out in the field. They’ve seen the quality and the capabilities of the pads, made an enquiry and bought them.”