Two Way Cranes Wollongong was recently challenged with a complex lift involving three Franna AT40’s. With extremely tight tolerances including very little over head height, the three Franna lift was the only option. Scott Slender from the Two Way Cranes Wollongong operation explains more.
“We were lifting what’s called a Gear Reducer which is used in the mineral processing plants at the Newcrest Cadia Mine. The Gear Reducer was a serious piece of equipment and weighed 56t when it turned up on the truck. It was for David Brown Santasola at their workshop facilities in Bulli and we needed to unload it inside the workshop so the technicians could work on it,” said Scott.
“Unloading the Gear Reducer in the workshop meant we were working with some very tight tolerances. Prior to the lift, our Project Manager Sash Vujic and myself conducted a site visit to better understand what we were dealing with.
“With the size and the weight of the equipment we thought we’d get a slewer in to manage the lift but when we got to the workshop we could see there wasn’t much width to play with, and only nine meters of height which meant a slewer was out of the question.”
Sash and Scott then went back to Wollongong yard and sat down to plan the best solution for the client. Together, they concluded the only way to complete the lift would be to work with three Franna AT40s. The AT40 was the only crane capable of being able to work within the space and height restrictions to complete the lift.
“We concluded that the Franna AT40s could manage the lift, and that we were going to need three of them. We calculated that the extra capacity provided by the AT40 would actually be good for that weight with the safe working load, and then we needed the 30% extra capacity required for dual or triple lifts,” said Scott.
There was a significant amount of planning prior to both lifts which involved both the Wollongong and Sydney operations of Two Way Cranes working closely together.
“After two site visits we then came up with the idea of utilising the three AT40s for the lift. That’s when we spoke to our Sydney colleagues and explained the complexities of the lift. They then worked on lift plans to make sure we were on the money with our thinking and our methodology in terms of lifting with three Frannas.
“As it always is, the planning of the lifts was time consuming and on the days of the lifts, there was lot of repositioning of the Frannas as required. But once we got them into the right position, they performed exactly how we needed them to,” said Scott.
Meticulous planning went into the lift itself to ensure everything went smoothly. “To get the Gear Reducer into position we lifted it off the truck with a static lift and we drove the truck out of the workshop. We then placed the Gear Reducer back down on the ground, and there was a coupling that they removed that brought the weight down to 47t. Once they removed the coupling, we were able to mobile it into a position, rotate it, and that’s when we had two AT40s on one end and we walked it in with the third,” explained Scott.
The AT40 is one of the newest additions to the Franna pick and carry portfolio, incorporating the latest technology with engineering excellence. With a huge maximum lift capacity of 40 tonne, this articulated crane boasts 44 per cent more load moment than the MAC25. The 3-axle design eliminates the need for a removable counterweight and the third axle control system raises axle 3 when operating on a work site, providing similar turning circle as the MAC25. Maximum road speeds of up to 75 km/h allows the operator to move swiftly and safely from job to job.
Additional features include a full width isolated cabin, articulating counterweight and increased cabin storage.
Dynamic LMI (Patent Protected)
First released in 2013, Franna’s patented Dynamic LMI remains as a pillar of safety, underpinning the electronic control and user experience offered today. The system is designed to offer ‘real-time’ calculation of rated capacity taking into account boom configuration, as well as chassis articulation, pitch and roll, enabling continual assessment of structural limitations, forward stability and side stability.
Increased resolution of rated capacity is made possible by finer measurement of articulation pitch and roll angles, allowing for improved machine capability compared to previous generation LMI systems. When operated on a jobsite over undulating terrain, the rated capacity will be updated continually, providing instantaneous information on the percentage utilisation of the machine (0-100% of available capacity). When operating on a side slope or undulating terrain, operators are no longer required to manually calculate a reduction of rated capacity; the Franna Dynamic LMI does that.
These features are further enhanced with the release of Franna’s new ‘Safety Radar’ technology. The Safety Radar will show the operator a simple visualization of the safe working area for the load being lifted that adjusts in real time based on articulation and radius of the particular crane, and dynamically adjusts for pitch and roll.
Scott explains that this was a fairly rare type of lift and Two Way Cranes were really happy with the performance of the AT40s.
“This is the first time we’ve done anything like this, and the fact that we have four AT40s in the Two Way Cranes fleet made it possible for us to manage the lift with our own cranes.
“The AT40s did everything they were supposed to do. There was some fiddling getting the cranes into the right positions, ensuring they were straight so that we could stay on chart with them. But once we did, and got it how we planned it, everything went exactly how we thought it would go and the client was absolutely rapt,” said Scott. “We could not have done it without the AT40’s”.
To learn more about the Franna ‘Safety Radar’, contact us at Franna@terex.com.