Spierings Kranen, the Dutch manufacturer of truck-mounted tower cranes, or ‘mobile folding cranes’, has delivered its 350th unit, with Scottish rental company Bernard Hunter Ltd taking delivery of an SK 598-AT5 model.
Spierings Kranen was founded by Leo Spierings in 1988 and delivered its first crane in May 1989. According to Leo Spierings, all but the original prototype are still at work in the field.
Of the 350 Spierings cranes delivered to date, 315 are in the Netherlands, 13 are now in the UK/Ireland, 10 are in Belgium, eight in Germany, three in Switzerland and one in Canada. A further 42 units are on the order book and next year Spierings plans to extend the factory to increase manufacturing capacity from 50 units a year to 75.
Bernard Hunter, owner and managing director of Edinburgh-based Bernard Hunter Ltd, showed off his new machine to customers and the Scottish crane community at an open day on 2 August.
“We are delighted that it’s the first one in Scotland,” Hunter told ConnectingCranes. “Customers just look at it in awe – the same reaction we had when we first saw it two years ago.” Contracts director Jimmy Rafferty, Hunter’s brother-in-law, said: “We saw the machine at SED [the UK construction equipment show] and thought it was a fantastic configuration between a tower crane and a normal mobile crane.” Rafferty said that it would be marketed as a general purpose crane, rather than just for niche applications, and it is expected to yield a rental rate in the region of a 90t telescopic crane. “But you can do more jobs with it in a day,” he said.
Leo Spierings himself prefers to call this type of product a ‘mobile folding crane’ rather than mobile tower crane, because the word ‘tower’ can put off potential customers from the mobile crane sector, he says.
The SK 598-AT5 has a five-axle carrier and can lift 1.7t at the end of its 48m jib. Maximum lift capacity is 8t and maximum height under hook is 30m with horizontal jib or 53.2 when luffed.
The first unit Spierings’ new six-axle model, the SK 1265-AT6, is scheduled for delivery in October to Verschoor of the Netherlands.
In development is the company’s first crawler-mounted model, the SK 3200R which will have a 35m jib, and lift a maximum of 18t, or 5t at maximum reach. Spierings said that it was being designed for transport on two trucks instead of the three trucks that competitor machines require. It would also take just one hour to erect or dismantle, he said.
