Cranes and Lifting looks at how Tadano Oceania is embracing innovation and bringing the next generation of crane control and safety technology to the industry.
For close to 30 years, Tadano has been at the forefront of engineering and manufacturing crane control and safety into its range of All Terrain cranes.
An example of this commitment is the Tadano Hydraulic Telescopic Luffing Jib (HTLJ) Boom Extension, which was recently released to the Australian market and according to Anthony Grosser, General Manager Tadano Oceania, it’s been received well by local customers.
“The HTLJ Boom Extension is a fully-hydraulic telescopic luffing jib that works like an additional fully-hydraulic main boom,” he said. “Crane operators can choose from variable lengths during one job without any rigging effort in between and this includes being able to pick up the load at a very short radius and then telescoping it to wherever you need it.”
“The HTLJ saves customers on transport, rigging time and it can be assembled within a short time frame. The four-section telescopic attachment is designed to be fitted to the main boom quickly and easily by one person, without the need for an assist crane and it can be operated remotely as a one-man operation. The HTLJ is ideal for working in application with tight spaces and/or height restricted areas,” said Grosser.
The HTLJ is interchangeable between the Tadano ATF 200 and ATF 200.
“For Tadano Oceania, safety is a paramount consideration and there are no exceptions,” said Grosser.
“Our All Terrain range features the Lift Adjuster system is designed to enhance the safety of everyone on the construction site by ensuring the operator knows exactly where the load is and what it’s doing.”
The Lift Adjuster is a technical control system that allows operators to monitor the potential movement of a heavy load.
When activated, the system senses boom deflection and adjusts the hoist cylinder to compensate for any radius changes.
“Without the benefit of this feature, crane operators must manually adjust the main boom to a steeper position in order to prevent damaging the load or injuring people on-site, ” said Grosser. “Routinely, operators are continuously monitoring the load, the load environment and the cranes’ instrumentation so they are always aware of the current working radius. For most experienced operators this isn’t a problem because they are used to the behaviour of the crane. But what happens to a heavy load or if operator is inexperienced?
“Without a wealth of working knowledge about boom deflection or load oscillation, a new operator will focus on the crane instruments to keep the load and radius constant, this doesn’t leave a lot of time to monitor the actual behaviour of the load and the people working around the crane and this increases the risk of accidents.”
“Safety becomes even more of a concern when operators can’t see the load. The answer to these safety issues is the Tadano Lift Adjuster. Anytime a crane operator is not familiar with the crane or load in question, he can activate the Lift Adjuster with the press of a button. Crane control then corrects the working radius automatically.
No matter how much experience a crane operator has, one person can only pay attention to so many factors at once. Even the slightest lack of attention or distraction can have catastrophic results on a job site,” said Grosser.
Most Tadano machines now feature the HELLO-NET system to ensure monitoring the performance of Tadano All Terrain cranes has never been easier.
“HELLO-NET is a tool that connects the crane operations with owners, their service staff and the manufacturer via satellite,” said Grosser.
“This is a high quality tool designed to ensure that our customers cranes are operating productively, efficiently and safely.”
“The HELLO-NET Owner’s site can display the day-to-day operations of the machine including kilometres, fuel consumption, idle time and the collected data provides insights into the safe operations of the crane.”
“The program is intelligent and adapts to the specific service needs of the customer and provides the ability to check maintenance timetables for parts replacement and alert when inspections and services are due, for the entire life of the crane.
HELLO-NET is also remotely accessible by Tadano technicians which can help improve the cranes downtime whilst providing valuable data on how to continually make improvements to our products,” said Grosser. “Although it does not happen often, theft can be an issue and the GPS data generated by HELLO-NET enables customers to view and monitor the whereabouts of its fleet 24-7,” he said.
“At Tadano, we are committed to enhancing the performance and safety of our equipment he said, “a good example of this is the SMART CHART system.
“SMART CHART is designed to enable a crane to reach its full lifting potential by expanding the traditional 360-degree circular shaped working area to an expanded square shape, which allows the user to achieve maximum load chart performance in any asymmetric outrigger configuration,” he said.