Potain’s progress

Potain may never build a tower as famous as the one Gustav Eiffel gave to Paris, but its tower cranes are just as visible on the French landscape. It dominates the French tower crane market, with a share of about 90%.

The 1990s was a difficult decade for all tower crane manufacturers, Potain included. In 1993 the French market took a downturn; in 1995 the German market began to fall; in 1997 the previously healthy Asian market began to evaporate; and then in 1998 what demand there was from Russia and South America dried up.

But at Potain there is once again a spirit of optimism regarding current trading conditions. With the exception of Germany, Europe has picked up in the past two years, and as reported in the March issue of Cranes Today, there is a definite tower crane renaissance underway in North America.

Most significantly the tower crane market in France reached 433 units in total, a massive rise of 47% on 1998. Whereas in Germany the market is only 20% larger top-slewing models and 80% smaller self-erectors, in France more like 30% of crane sales are the higher value top-slewing models.

The positives may not be enough to offset the negatives – no real recovery in demand from Asia, and a German market stuck at a relatively paltry 1,200 tower cranes a year – but Potain is bouncing back. Its turnover grew by about FFr200m to FFr1.57bn, a 14% increase, in 1999. The growth in demand from southern Europe and France led to tower crane production rising from 2,100 units in 1998 to 2,600 units in 1999.

Potain states quite confidently that it is the world’s leading tower crane manufacturer, whether one chooses to measure by turnover, by number of cranes sold, or by the depth of its product range. This is a claim always guaranteed to annoy Liebherr (see p32).

Potain has more than 70 basic models in its listed range, 80% of which have been renewed in the past three years. The range extends from the HD 10, which hoists 600kg at 16m, to the MD 2200 which can lift 22t at 80m. Thanks in the main to the acquisition of BKT of Germany in 1998 it can now boast a full range of self-erecting tower cranes, topless top-slewers without jib ties, and luffing jib cranes, as well as its traditional top slewing, trolley jib tower cranes.

Not only does Potain compete throughout the tower crane range, but it also takes on the likes of Krøll in the specialist end of the market, supplying the Three Gorges Dam project in China with massive Topbelt tower cranes for concrete conveying. These cranes, from which articulated conveyor belts are suspended, are pouring concrete at an average rate of more than 300m3/h, and up to 600m3/h at peak times. To get an idea of just how much that is, consider that during the construction of the Stade de France stadium in Paris, all the cranes together placed 250m3 of concrete per day.

The Three Gorges project, coupled with the experience of what is now Potain Technik GmbH in Germany, has led Potain to seek customers in the wide range of materials handling applications. For example, it has designed a high-performance portal crane for shipbuilding yards, available with either a luffing jib or a moving trolley jib. It has also designed two types of dockyard cranes – one with single luffing jib and one with double luffing jib – for handling bulk products such as cereals, minerals or sand.

The company has also sought to extend its product offering by buying distribution rights for Ron Laczko’s Lasco Portable Crane, which it markets as a Potain branded PC 10T, and a line of material hoists. Potain also has the distribution rights for the Marchetti Trio mobile crane in France.

New developments on show at Intermat

As the construction industry has become more efficient, construction times have reduced. This has led to a reduction in the length of time a tower crane is likely to be on site and, as a consequence, speed of erecting and dismantling cranes has grown in importance. Potain has therefore turned its attention to rapid and simple mast assembly methods for its MD crane range, and come up with its new K200 mast system, with three mast sections – 1.2m, 1.6m and 2m – to cover ratings up to 350tm. The boxed angle steel masts are assembled with eight stepped pins which, says Potain, are easy to install without tools and easy to check visually.

In the HD range of hydraulic self-erectors, Potain has produced a semi-trailer version of the HD 32 and HD 40, designated HDM. They are transported in fully assembled form, complete with ballast, and so are more quickly erected.

Potain has also added a second telescoping model to its self-erector range. Three years after the launch of the HDT 70 comes the stronger HDT 80 which lifts 1,350kg at 45m and has a maximum load of 6t. The hydraulic telescoping of three tubular masts gives heights from 13m to 32m with a horizontal jib and up to 53m with the jib raised. An operator’s cab is optional.

All of the above will be on show at Intermat this month, as will a new range of frequency variation mechanisms, the LVF Optima hoisting winches, which increase hoisting speeds by up to 70%, Potain claims. The improved performance is achieved through an electronic unit which constantly optimises speed as a function of the load and the direction of movement.

Potain will also be showing its response to Liebherr’s Litronic remote diagnostics – the Dialog Pilot. Dialog Pilot is an on-board computer system that can help in the management of a crane or a site of a fleet of cranes. The benefits of such remote diagnostic systems is that they can help the operator drive and maintain the crane, help combat external factors such as high winds, and they can record main operating parameters so that a predictive maintenance programme can be introduced instead of less efficient preventative maintenance.

Already used on Potain’s bigger cranes, such as the four MD 600s that are in action on the construction of the Rion Antirion bridge in Greece, Dialog Pilot will now be offered on all Topkit MD top slewing cranes, from the MD 185 to the MD 345. Also offered is the simpler version Dialog Easy, which still allows the management of operational parameters and can be adapted to all the machines in the Potain range, including old models.