In the November edition of Cranes and Lifting Terex Franna announced its latest safety innovation, creating the Franna Safety Radar with a view to improving safety within the pick and carry sector.
The Safety Radar was launched at the 2022 CICA national conference with a presentation made by Mike Atherden explaining the ins and outs of the systems to the eager audience.
Atherden has worked within Terex since 2008, currently serving as co-leader of the Engineering group as Principal Engineer.
Improving safety in the crane sector is a constantly evolving beast and Franna has worked to develop this latest safety feature since 2019.
Unlike conventional Load Moment Indicators (LMI) which only tell you the percentage of rated capacity for the current lifting position, Franna’s Safety Radar shows the operator a simple and clear visual radar map of the safe working area for the load being lifted and most importantly for the actual working environment of the crane i.e. front/rear and side slope. It will help to predict the safest options for the next stages of the lift.
A concern often voiced by operators is that these systems take control away from the operator and cause a generation of operators who fail to have a deep understanding of the machine they are in. This is simply not the case when it comes to using the safety radar system as it allows operators to have a far greater understanding of the machine and its limitations minimising incidents on site and allowing all workers to get home safely at the end of the day.
All Franna operators would have a general understanding that the rated capacity drops off as radius is extended, when the crane is articulated and when the crane is positioned across a slope with the load on the downhill side. But what is really hard to predict is when the crane is limited by or approaching a side tipping condition, based on the real life working conditions.
Franna is hoping to change the way operators utilise the information being presented, such as when the crane starts to pick up the lift. The operator sees the green safe working area instantly adjust on the display, dynamically updating to show any areas of the working area that the operator should not approach.
When it comes to the next step of the lift, with the pick and carry crane mobile and moving the load from point A to point B, there’s typically quite a number of twists or turns and surface undulations that have to be negotiated. As the display dynamically updates, it gives the operator an understanding of what the next move should be. If the operator has options in how to get from point A to point B, Safety Radar helps determine which move is going to be the safest.
Atherden said the feedback so far has been very positive.
“The customers that we’ve discussed Safety Radar with and the operators we’ve given it to, have come back and said, ‘It’s fantastic, we can’t believe how we have been operating without it.’ And even people that aren’t in the operational space but are more in the fleet management are saying, ‘It really gives a new dimension in terms of safety for this type of machine, allowing the operator to really plan their next move more effectively and safely’,” he said.
The Franna Safety Radar shows the operator what the crane’s response to the current load and working environment would be if radius is increased or the articulation is increased with the current configuration. Terex Franna sees Safety Radar as a game changing development in pick and carry sector, and we don’t use the term lightly,” Atherden said.
The Franna Safety Radar will be standard in all AT40 machines, as well as MAC25 and AT22 machines and will be available for retrofit to these existing crane models in the field which are fitted with the Dynamic LMI system soon.