Verton Technologies has a proud history of working with and in the Western Australian economy. With plaudits received from various interest groups across the mining and offshore industries, Verton’s revolutionary load-stabilising technology is lifting the safety game to new standards.
The tale of Verton Technologies is symbiotic with the story of the lifting and rigging industry in Western Australia.
Even before the company was brought into being, founder, owner and current CEO Stan Thomson began his career in the state at an iron ore construction site in the Pilbara region back in 1978. In short, the company has always held an innate understanding of the challenges posed to the mining and construction industries out west.
Verton has always sought to provide safe, stable and precise lifting solutions to whomever engages the new technologies from the Brisbane-based company, and it does so through its range of modular spreader beams.
The technology itself is revolutionary; Verton’s Everest SpinPod series does all the things expected of a modular lifting spreader. Holding capacities ranging from 5 tonnes through to 200 tonnes, depending on the generation, Verton’s technology holds a key point of difference: remote-controlled load-stabilising, gyroscopic technology.
“The concept of removing taglines and removing people from the presence of a suspended load is central to the work that we do at Verton Technologies,” says Business Development Manager Marcio Casagranda.
Where this concept is ultimately at its most present is in the mining and offshore sectors. Encountering environments where cranes can be thrown off balance and where efficiency and safety need to be optimised together, Verton sees a lot of investment in its products come from Western Australia.
The very first recipient of Verton’s first-generation SpinPod came from Western Australia, as Marcio highlights. Adding that the first purchaser of the third generation of SpinPod technology was a mining company also based in WA, and it’s clear to see the close relationship Verton Technologies has enjoyed with a range of different companies based out west.
“For Verton, we’ve always enjoyed a prosperous relationship with clients engaging our services from the mining and offshore industries,” says Marcio. “In our experience, these are the companies prepared to engage with new developments in technology and really invest in providing the newest and latest safety measures.”
In WA, the resources industry accounted for 46 per cent – or $186.8 billion – of the state’s Gross State Product (GSP) last year. In 2022, the state achieved its highest ever sales of $246 billion whilst simultaneously employing people in 117,970 full-time equivalent roles in the mining industry.
What this means is that there are a lot of moving parts with high-stake risks associated in the WA economy. Cranes are a fundamental element of shutdown maintenance, and safety is paramount, with stable and precise machinery needing to be used to enact proper lifting procedures. According to Marcio, Verton’s track record in the mining industry shows that the company’s technological solutions for removing people from around the load only substantiates the efficacy of its products.
“Our products have consistently been taken up by the likes of Roy Hill, MACA, and Mineral Resources,” he says. “In the shutdown and maintenance aspect of mining, businesses are bleeding money; everything needs to be planned accordingly, and everything needs to be executed according to plan, or else millions to billions can be lost in downtime.”
“When there’s an increase in lost revenue, more risks are taken,” he continues. “Our technologies provide a safer lifting solution in a stable manner producing precise results, in turn providing greater efficiency and less downtime.”
This, according to Marcio, is evidenced by the prominent role Verton’s gyroscopic technology played in facilitating the removal of 30 transformers for Roy Hill. Operating in the harsher climes of the Pilbara region, Roy Hill was expecting to complete the maintenance work within eight days, as previous experience had shown this was the normal timeframe.
With Verton’s SpinPods being used, the maintenance crew only needed five days to complete the tasks at hand. Jeremy Whiting from Kutharra Cranes – the company enlisted to complete the shutdown at Roy Hill’s mining site – spoke of safety being “number one” during the process thanks to Verton’s Everest 6, as there was “no need for taglines” and riggers were able to be kept “out of the line of fire”.
“This is emblematic of the work that our technologies do,” says Marcio. “Our SpinPod series removes people from around the load and removes the need for taglines. Because of that, there’s less people involved, resulting in a much safer, streamlined process.”
It’s not just in the mining industry where Verton has seen its products thrive. Revealing the company has sold 12 units of its third generation SpinPod technology to an offshore resources company, Marcio says the load-stabilising technology underpins the level of safety involved in intensive lifting environments.
“When a crane – or other associated lifting equipment – is conducting its lifting from a barge, it’s operating in an unstable environment in hostile conditions,” he says. “The benefit of our technology is that it can hold these loads stable without anyone needing to be near them, resulting in extended, more precise lifting procedures conducted in a safer manner.”
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Verton doesn’t just see its products stay local, either. Adding value in a range of industries – whether that be stabilising loads in the offshore environments, increasing safety in the maintenance of mining equipment, or lifting bridge beams or panels in the construction and infrastructure industries – Verton’s products can now be seen in Europe, North America and South America, according to Marcio.
“This exemplifies the manner in which our load-stabilising gyroscopic technology is revolutionising the crane industry,” he says. “Guided by our three principles of safety, stability and precision, we want to create as safe a lifting environment as possible to ensure that everyone can go home safely at the end of the day.”
