All articles by Ky Nikitha
Ky Nikitha
An uncommon market
The Vertikal Days show, in May this year, showed a UK crane market that is far from on hold. Julian Champkin found an air of optimism and very many new introductions.
Designing the crane industry
As Hans-Dieter Willim retires from his position as head of design at Liebherr Ehingen, Stuart Anderson interviews the man who has for forty years played a key role in shaping the modern mobile crane industry.
The long and the short of it
At this year’s Bauma, Manitowoc launched a series of long boom versions of its cranes. It’s not an entirely novel strategy, but one that the US firm has followed across more of its range than any other. Will North asks the big four global all terrain manufacturers how they meet different demands for reach and capacity.
Automated lifting
Construction company Multiplex has enhanced site safety on the New Museum for Western Australia site in Perth’s CBD with Roborigger, an innovative automated lifting device.
Experience and innovation
One of the things that makes the crane industry so interesting to report on, is the level of innovation coming out of a relatively small and tightly-knit industry. Unlike other sectors I’ve covered, it has been relatively easy to meet a broad range of suppliers and users; and, where some industries progress only slowly, just in the decade or so I’ve been covering the sector, I’ve seen new crane types come into regular use.
Italian and truck mounted
Italian truck-mounted hydraulic crane manufacturer Idrogru presented at Bauma the new KT160.36. Sotiris Kanaris spoke to sales manager Roberto Vezzelli about new products and the company strategy.
Twin booms
At Bauma, Marchetti’s Marcello Maestri talked to Will North about how a small manufacturer can meet a wide range of customer demands.
Winning ticket
ESTA, the European association for special transport and mobile cranes, supports best practice and safe working in a number of ways, including bringing together industry experts to develop best practice guidance; through its awards each year; and with its work to develop a European Crane Operators’ Licence, ECOL. Here, in pictures, we look at some of the winners of this years awards, and, in the text, get an update on ECOL’s development.
Let’s get digital
Knuckleboom manufacturers exhibited numerous new products at Bauma. Julian Champkin found that there is increasing technical sophistication in these machines.