Chorus of cranes

Italian company Techind, a Potain dealer for the Bergamo region of Italy, northeast of Milan, has deployed seven Potain MDT 219 J10 top-slewing tower cranes, along with two Potain self-erecting tower cranes (one HD 40A and one Igo 50), to lift construction materials on the Chorus Life jobsite in Bergamo.

Chorus Life will be a mixed-use smart city and will include a 6,500 person arena, a car park for 1,000 vehicles, a spa, a medical centre, a sky jogging track, a 110-room hotel, and a 74-apartment residence.

It is being constructed by contractor Percassi for real estate company Costim. Around 400 tonnes of iron is being handled on-site every week, plus other construction materials. Percassi asked Techind to identify the optimum lifting equipment for the job. It required a single crane model that could be set up in different configurations for maximum versatility.

Techind studied the site and its layout identifying the necessary logistics, plus the crane operating heights, jib lengths, and capacities required. Based on this it recommended the MDT 219 J10 which incorporates some of Potain's most advanced control and management technologies.

Techind subsequently erected seven Potain MDT 219 J10 top-slewing cranes with Ultra View cabs in different configurations with varying heights, jib lengths, and capacities around the Chorus Life site.

The basic configuration of the Potain MDT 219 J10 is a 65 m jib with a maximum capacity of 10 t at 17 m and 1.9 t at the tip. In this instance, the cranes were equipped with a 37 kW (50 HP) 50LVF25 GH Optima lifting hoist and RVF 162 Optima Plus slewing mechanism.

All seven cranes feature Manitowoc’s latest generation Crane Control System (CCS) and Top Tracing III – an integrated anti-collision system that can monitor up to 16 cranes on site.

It also has a screen that Potain says allows for a more comprehensive view of the crane and its surroundings than those offered by its Ultra View cab. The cranes also feature the CraneSTAR Diag remote diagnostics tool, which enables technicians to remotely connect to the crane operator’s control screen to perform diagnostics and troubleshooting in real time.

In addition to the seven MDT 219 J10 top-slewing tower cranes Techind also deployed two Potain self-erecting tower cranes: an HD 40A, which is 23 m high and has a 35 m jib; and an Igo 50, which is 23.2 m high and has a 40 m jib.