Low capacity, high competition

From pile driving and placing concrete formwork to bridge building and dam construction, manufacturer's worldwide report strong, and growing, demand for small crawler cranes. Although increasing crawler capacity has been a key focus of the industry for several years, manufacturers tell Cranes Today that many improvements have also been made to machines at the lower end of the lift capacity market.

From pile driving and placing concrete formwork to bridge building and dam construction, manufacturer's worldwide report strong, and growing, demand for small crawler cranes. Although increasing crawler capacity has been a key focus of the industry for several years, manufacturers tell Cranes Today that many improvements have also been made to machines at the lower end of the lift capacity market.

One of the key drivers for this has been the increasingly strict emissions requirements for engines that have been adopted throughout Europe, North America and in parts of Asia. "Some of our customers have older machines which on occasion don't comply with the regulations that they need to comply with. For example on London's Crossrail at the moment every machine that goes in to the job has to have a Euro 3B or Tier 4i engine," explains Mark Evans, Europe and Africa sales manager for Japanese manufacturer Kobelco.

Tier 4 is the emissions criteria set forth by the US Environmental Protection Agency with Euro stage 3B being the European equivalent. Both demand massive reductions in the particulate matter in engine exhaust gas including virtually eliminating sulphur oxides and minimising nitrous oxides.

For firms such as Kobelco this means big opportunities for customers seeking to modernise their fleets. "The longevity of our crawler crane is that they tend to be in people's fleet for 10-20 years. At the moment there is quite a demand for the latest spec of engines and we have won some orders recently from a number of customers for example crane rental companies like Weldex, and contractors like Bam Nuttall, Graham Construction, and the Hochtief/Murphy joint venture who have just ordered some machines to go into Crossrail. I am talking to other customers too," says Evans.

For these customers Evans explains that Kobelco offers its newly improved CKE G series range which at the under 150t end of the market offers the CKE 600G, 800G, 900G, 1100G and 1350G and then the heavy duty lift cycle BME 800G. Modifications to these machines include an "auto idle stop" function that stops the engine when the vehicle is not being operated, with an automatic restart once the accelerator is operated. This G-engine also controls maximum engine horsepower to ensure that the top winch speed can be maintained at a reduced engine speed - making the engine as efficient as possible. In the G-Winch mode the line can be raised or lowered at maximum line speed without raising the engine speed - again promoting efficiency and reducing fuel consumption.

German manufacturer Liebherr is well known for its state of the art technology which includes efficient engines. It produces a range of engines depending on the destination of the crane and hence the needs of the local market. In the smaller crawler range the company makes cranes for both lifting and duty cycle applications. At under 160t the LR series includes the LR 1100, LR 1130 and the LR 1160 and the company also has seven types of duty cycle cranes at under 120t. The company points to the LR 1160 as being one of its most popular. "In recent years the programme of boom and jib configurations and equipment for the LR 1160 has been steadily enlarged, so that more than 100,000 equipment configurations are now possible, and the range of potential applications has grown accordingly," says a spokesman. The LR1160 is powered by a 270 kW Liebherr diesel engine and is equipped with 2 hoist winches, each with a line pull of 12t and rope speed up to 136 m/m. Special high speed winches are also available for speed up to 220 m/m.

One of the advantages that Liebherr promotes is the compact transport dimensions of its crawlers and this was well and truly tested on a recent project in Switzerland where two LR 1160s were to be used on a major power station project. Two material ropeways separated by a 3km access tunnel had to be used to move the cranes to the two required locations. This required some careful calculations from Liebherr who carried out the analysis at Nenzing. The maximum lifting capacities for the two sections of the ropeway were 38t and 30t respectively. Additionally the two hoist winches on the material ropeways could only be loaded with 25t each. This presented a challenge for Liebherr and the contractor Marti AG with the base units of the LR1160 coming in at 38.5t. However, since the crane was attached to the material ropeway at an inclination of 47° during transportation, the position of the centre of gravity and the force on the points of suspension of the material ropeway varied. As a result the weight of the crane had to be reduced to 31t in order to avoid overloading of the individual material ropeway winches. For this reason, amongst other parts, the hoist winch and cylinders were disassembled. Additionally all liquids had to be reduced to a minimum. The usual suspension points on the crane could only be partly used. Furthermore parts belonging to the crane were used to establish the connection between crane and material ropeway cross bar.

Another challenge was moving the cranes through the 3km tunnel that separated the two sections of ropeway. The height and width of the mouth of the tunnel were only minimally larger than the standard dimensions of a LR 1160 on a low loader.

Liebherr tells Cranes Today that machines such as this have been very popular among customers over the past couple of years. Fellow manufacturer Manitowoc would certainly agree launching a new 165t machine in April 2013. Shipments will begin in the third quarter of the same year. The MLC 165 comes with a choice of either a 224 kW Cummins Tier III engine or a more environmentally-friendly 239 kW Cummins Euromot 3B engine. The maximum boom length of the crane is 84m. It also has an optional fixed jib and luffing jib. Its maximum load moment is 762 tm. "This self-rigging crane is very easy to assemble and disassemble," says global product director Gerard Maloney. "It can install and remove its own counterweights and tracks without the need of a support crane. In addition, it has a 3m component width and modular assemblies for easy transport over the road. It is loaded with all the latest technology to benefit everyone from owners to the operator."

"Our engineers designed the MLC165 to facilitate general contractor activities like pile driving and moderate clamshell or grapple work," adds technical sales support coordinator Steven Dick. "We like to think of the MLC165 as a versatile tool."

Indeed it is the versatility of the small crawlers that sees them working on all manner of projects from bridge building jobs, foundation work, metro stations and railways to acting as service cranes in oil refineries and petrochemical plants. "Historically our main market has been North America, for crawlers less than 150t, but demand has been picking up in Singapore and other parts of Southeast Asia, as well as, India, Latin America and Oceania. We also expect Russia to be a strong market in the future too," says Maloney.

In Asia Maloney points to transport projects as being a key driver, for example local heavy plant and equipment specialist Tower Mark Ltd, which operates a fleet of 100 cranes has a range of Manitowoc crawlers and recently supplied a 11000-1 to Bachy Soletanche on the Diamond Hill station of the Shatin to Central rail link project. Alongside this a 8500- 1, an 80t capacity crawler, is working with Leighton Gammon JV on a new high speed rail terminus for trains travelling from Hong Kong to China. According to Bachy Soletanche senior superintendent Bruna Launay the new 1100-1 crane is ideal for work on Hong Kong's typically compact and congested jobsites.

Meanwhile ambitious Chinese crane manufacturer Sany is making important progress with its medium sized crawlers in the US market, which could bode well for its smaller machines. Its SCC 8300 crawler was certified for operation by the New York City Department of Buildings opening the doors to one of the world's biggest centres of demand.

Despite demand in the global market looking good for crawlers it's not all sunshine and roses. A side effect of the market slump in previous years has led to strong competition in today's improving market with some firms complaining of price dumping in the rental rates for smaller machines.

However, as the global construction sector picks up and legislation forces users to upgrade equipment the mood among manufacturers is optimistic - despite the growing competition. Emissions standards are continuing to tighten with more revisions due to US and European legislation in 2014. "Fleet modernisation is something that needs to happen now," says Evans. "The beast is growing and it is only going to spread."

Telescopic Crawlers gain popularity
Traditionally lattice boom crawlers have dominated the smaller lift end of the market but several firms report growing demand for telescopic crawlers. Essex based crane hire specialist NRC Plant tells Cranes today that its telescopic machines supplied by US-based Link-Belt are highly sought after. "Telescopic crawlers seem to be very fashionable at the moment because of the cost and the safety aspects," says NRC managing director Rod Abbott. "So of a night if you are in a city centre you can retract the boom, whereas a lattice there is a lot to consider such as where am I going to rig it - do I need a road closure?"

In the past, telecrawlers were not as competitive in terms of capacity but advances in materials and design have improved the machines. "Years ago because of the weight of the boom if you had a 50t of lattice and a 50t telecrawler the lattice boom would out lift it every time. But the modern telecrawler the booms are so light and strong that they almost match and you don't have any rigging costs," says Abbott. "Telecrawlers are selling better than the lattice boom crawlers at the moment. The UK is probably leading the way in terms of sales."

Kobelco's Evans agrees that telecrawlers have become more attractive. "There is an increasing demand for telescopic crawler cranes. People like the manoeverability and the working capability of a crawler crane but they also appreciate the versatility of having a telescopic boom. It gives them probably the best of both worlds," he says pointing to the Kobelco TK 750 as a good example of a modern telecrawler. The machine can lift 75t using the 9.9m boom at a 3m radius, and with the boom extended it can lift 2.7t at 27.8m.