The European debut of the World Class Crane Management Seminar was held in Amsterdam from 27 to 29 May. The event opened with an introduction from Rolf Lovgren, who is not only the chairman of the ISO committee for the use, operation and maintenance of cranes but also the organiser of this event in North America.
Reflecting the international nature of the event, speakers came from 10 different countries and the attendees came from more than 15 countries, including Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Israel and the USA as well as from all over Europe.
First paper was presented by Marc Ostertag, general manager of PAT-America who gave a history of crane safety systems, an overview of current technologies, and an insight into the possibilities of the near future. Next up was Walter Länge, technical director of Liebherr-Werk Nenzing, who explained why electronic control of cranes gives better performance and is more reliable than either hydraulic or electric controls. The final paper of the first morning was delivered by Kurt Thomsen, director of A2Sea, a company with a new solution for erecting wind turbines offshore (Craneship, Feb02 p49).
The afternoon began with Tomas Sörensen of Datek who gave a comprehensive explanation of radio remote control systems and their safety features. This was followed by a presentation from Ivar Horst, managing director of Piab, exploring the causes of failures in lifting operations and the role that different types of overload guards can play in preventing them. The first day was rounded off by Tom Bremer of Hitec O explaining human-machine interaction and opportunities offered by crane simulators for operator training.
Day two opened with Wessel Helmens, engineering manager of Mammoet, explaining how he and his team raised the Kursk submarine from the bottom of the Barents Sea last year. Helmens’ presentation included a documentary film of the project which brought home the vast scale of the undertaking. He was followed by Alain Voyatzis, general director of SMIE, who explained how tower crane anti-collision systems work. These systems have constraints but also enormous benefits which, Voyatzis suggested, need not be limited to tower cranes. Next to the podium was Rafael Mira, technical manager of Tycsa, who convinced the audience that with wire rope it is a case of ‘you get what you pay for’. High performance ropes such as those impregnated with plastic (PFI, or plastic full impregnated) may cost more, but Mira made the benefits very clear.
Tuesday afternoon began with two papers from major end-users of mobile cranes. Firstly, the audience was given an insight into the crazy economics of the crane rental business. BMS managing director Søren Jansen suggested that it may only be in his native Denmark where the business simply made no sense, but it seems likely that there are many parts of the world where crane hire companies are giving away too many of their services instead of selling them.
Steve Cooke, service director of Ainscough and vice president of ESTA, the European association of heavy haulage, transport and mobile cranes, gave the most controversial address of the entire three-day event. In describing the work of ESTA, which is seeking to work with manufacturers to produce harmonised standards for mobile cranes, Cooke was critical and outspoken about what he saw as the shortcomings of all the manufacturers. The question and answer session that followed was predictably lively with manufacturers vigorously defending their position and the forceful Cooke unwilling to concede ground. A full report on Cooke’s presentation and the issues raised appears (see below).
Closing the second day was a pair of papers on a new concept for ship to shore handling of ultra large container ships. Evert Luttekes, an expert in goods handling systems who was formerly a project manager for steel company Corus and is now connected to the Delft University of Technology, explained the principles of his carrier crane concept. His associate Wouter van den Bos then showed the structural analysis that proved the concept. Luttekes is looking for crane manufacturers to adopt his design.
The final session of the seminar, on Wednesday morning, was ostensibly devoted to the EOT sector although there were insights for all crane users. Lars Tuve Hansson of ABB Crane Systems had produced a paper on how to reduce costs of motion controls on EOT cranes with a high asset value. His actual talk also covered market trends. Demand for ladle cranes will increase because of the age of the installed base, demand for standard EOT cranes will decrease but demand for modernisation and overhauls will increase. He also said that automation would really take hold in the steel industry. The subject of trends was picked up by the next speaker, Kimmo Hytönen, who believed that the load sway problems associated with EOT cranes would be a contributing factor to declining demand. Hytönen is managing director of Innocrane and, very effectively using a yo-yo as a visual aid, explained ways that load sway can be reduced.
The seminar ended as it began, with Rolf Lovgren. Lovgren’s presentation included just a small proportion of the masses of statistics that he has collected on the performance of cranes, all of which demonstrated that effectively structured crane maintenance reduces operating costs of any organisation.
The event was sponsored by Liebherr-Werk Nenzing. Companies taking stands at the exhibition accompanying the seminar were: Liebherr, Mammoet, Indic, Measurement Systems International, Hitec O, and Köhler Kran-Service.
Many of the papers will be reproduced in an edited format in either Cranes Today or its sister magazine Hoist over the coming months. Look out for preliminary details of next year’s seminar in a forthcoming edition of Cranes Today.