Previously in Cranes Today...

Cairngorm demonstration

The object of the exercise was to get the machine bogged down, in order to prove that it could 'un-bog' itself. In practice, this proved quite difficult, as the machine consistently refused to sink. One of the customers "rode shotgun," and at one point it looked as though he were going to bale out.

Discussing the angle of the tilt with Bob Taylor afterwards, he informed me that the tipping angle of the Cairngorm had been proved to be 24° on a tipping table. At this angle the crane driver would slide out of his seat before the crane tipped. We asked what would happen if the crane was rolled over. As the cab is fitted all round with laminated glass, there would be no shattering problem, and the driver would probably get away with only superficial injuries.

Liebherr launches a truck mounted tower

The world launch of Liebherr's new truck mounted selferecting crane took place recently at the Hatfield premises of the company's UK subsidiary, Liebherr-Great Britain.

The MK45 is an all-hydraulic self-erector suitable for mounting on a conventional three-axle truck chassis. It is seen as an attempt to bridge the gap between the static self-erector and the mobile truck crane and is designed to prove its worth when only moderately sized loads need to be lifted at a substantial radius. Design criteria included the ability to relocate quickly and simply so that the crane might tackle work at several different sites in one working day. The 45tm machine can lift 1.5t out to 24m with an underhook height of 16m.

Difficult trading around the world

Italian Manufacturer Casagrande reports difficult worldwide trading conditions, although it has just launched a new 20t-capacity crawler. The C20 crawler is designed to fill a gap at the bottom of the Casagrande product family. "All markets are difficult except the Far East, which is patchy," confides Michael C Finch, managing director of Casagrande UK.

"We expect a small increase in demand for crawlers in the UK over the next year or so, mainly on the back of the Jubilee Line extension."

Despite sluggish demand in much of Europe, Casagrande continues to enjoy strong markets in the Far East, particularly in Hong Kong, Singapore and Korea, which "have been particularly buoyant in the past and appear to remain so."

Certificates come to California

Operators of tower and mobile cranes in the US state of California will have to be officially certified by 2005 under proposals currently being considered by the state's Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board. Current regulations require crane operators to be 'qualified' to use the equipment, but they do not define what being qualified means.

The standards board wants to clarify this issue by amending T8 California Code of Regulations, Section 5006. The plan is to write a new section, 5006.1, that would apply to mobile and tower cranes with booms of 25ft (7.6m) or more and lifting capacities of 15,000lb (6.8t) or more.