Lifting Equipment Company Weathers Market Storm
4/22/2009
Published on January 30th, 2009
Lifting equipment distributor SA French CEO Quentin van Breda says
that the company has managed to keep pricing on its tower crane and
telehandler ranges competitive, in spite of massive fluctuations in the
exchange rate and steel price increases.
“We take a philosophy of preplanning and anticipating market trends
so that we always have stock on the floor. With most European suppliers
having lead times of between six months and a year, it’s vital to stay a
few steps ahead of the game,” he says.
Van Breda points out that lifting equipment manufacturer Potain is the
only worldwide to follow destructive testing
tactics on its new models before bringing them to market. “This sounds
really radical but after the development of a new product, Potain takes it
to the test centre where it is linked up to a myriad of computers through
probes, which are inserted into various parts of the crane. It is then run
24 hours a day to emulate the ser- vice hours normally recorded over a
ten-year period. Thereafter, it is run until it breaks down.
“Only in this way do Potain engineers believe they can iron out any
potential weak spots on their machines. The machine is then taken to
pieces and microscopically analysed to determine the causes for failure
and at what percentage overload these occurred. This then allows them
to factor in all eventualities in order to produce a crane that is virtually
indestructible when correctly applied,” Van Breda explains.
He says that the emphasis on safety in lifting equipment has been
supported by the Department of Labour through the 2003 introduction
of the Lifting Machinery Entity (LME) certification for companies involved
in supplying lifting equipment and the Lifting Machinery Inspector (LMI)
status for individuals responsible for testing lifting equipment. “SA
French was the first crane company in the market to receive LME status,
and, in addition, all seven of our crew leaders have obtained their LMI
accreditation,” says Van Breda. Five of the company’s LMIs are
based in Johannesburg, with one in Cape Town and one in Durban.
Van Breda says that the safety systems on all the company’s cranes
incorporate a number of standard features, including an overload protection
system on the hoist, to stop the crane from exceeding the specified loads.
The structure has a moment overload protection system and there is a
limit switch on the jib trolley. It employs a slew limit system, and has limit
switches on the rail travelling cranes, as well as hook-up and hook-down
limit switches.
All these features are inte- grated into the crane’s drive computer, which
will not allow the crane to proceed if any of the predetermined limits are
exceeded. The system will allow the operator to lower a load or trolley it in,
but will not allow the operator to lift a load beyond the limits, or trolley it out.
“There is a visible warning system on the cab’s computer screen and
this is accompanied by an audible alarm,” says Van Breda.
“In essence, therefore, the crane’s safety system will not allow an
operator to enter into what is considered an unsafe situation.
“In terms of safety, the Merlo telehandlers are some of the most
comprehensively equipped,” he continues. “They have an overload
device on the rear axle which disallows the operator entering what is
deemed a dangerous scenario.”
The Merlo telehandlers have in-house designed and manu- factured road
axles, which have a greater ground clearance than many other telehandlers
on the market. “This means that there is much less likelihood of the
operator hitting an obstruction that may not be visible,” says Van Breda.
He points out that the com- pany has a Transport Sector Education and
Training Authority- accredited training centre and can provide Teta-accredited
training for crane and telehandler operators. “We can train operators both
at our in-house facility as well as on site.This capability, combined with
the inherent safety systems on our products, makes the lifting of loads with
SA French products an attractive option,” he concludes.
Tag:forecast, scope, lifting equipment
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