This is what we do! We manufacture, service and inspect, maintain, repair and load test cranes, hoist and various lifting equipment.
This one we manufactured. The latest - the biggest, as in lifting capacity, not the longest!
On Friday, we delivered this crane to our customer. What a buzz in the workshop. Always is when a crane leaves our premises. I asked Andrew why there is such an amazing atmosphere at work on such a day. He reckons it plain straight nerves, but it is definitely a buzz, like exitement. Maybe it is because nobody is doing their regular jobs, it is something different, it is obviously very dangerous, anything can happen at any time. The guys are working all around the crane and they are at risk all the time, so maybe it's the adrenalin rush. I again just see 'dollar' signs, that is if all goes well and nothing happens between our workshop and our customers gantry rails. Seeing it up in the roof at the customer is always great, seeing it electrically connected and operating is even more so.
Going from huge sheet of metal, cutting it down, welding it all together until this is the end result. I am so proud of Andrew and Andy, Andrew built it, Andy did the electrics. It took us about 6 to 7 weeks to complete. Obviously other jobs get done in between as well. I always wait to see if poor Andrew is not going to have a heart attack one day from all the pressure, or maybe he will give one of us a heart attack instead!
The crane is finished and ready to be transported to our customer.
The crane coming out of our building.
Andy doing special hand signs for the mobile crane operator so that he knows what we need him to do. Andrew and Richard also in the background.
In the process of moving it out of our workshop. They use our crane inside and the mobile on the outside. Here they are busy rigging it up for the mobile to lift it onto the truck. Part of the crane is still in the building, they have to find the centre for balance, this crane is about 18 mtrs long. We recon it weights between 4 to 5 ton, the mobile says that it weights 7.8 ton, but I think their scale is inaccurate. Check Andy out on top of the crane. He is busy checking that the rigging is done properly.
Loaded on the truck and ready to leave our premises. The truck is also amazing, when it arrives at our premises it is normal length, then they lengthen it to suit our needs. Obviously, driving that truck with 18 mtr of crane on the back is a mean feat. At our premises the road is just a normal street, not wide. So hats off to the truck driver. He transports the crane to site with no problems, other than needing lots of time.
At the customer!
To get the truck in at the customer, Andrew had to use the existing crane in the building to lift the back end of the truck and drag it in like that. It took them about an hour to get that truck into the customers premises.
Off loaded at the customer.
The truck has pulled out and the mobile has pulled in to lift it onto the rails.
Going up. This is so nerve racking. Is it going to fit between the rails perfectly. Measurements have to be spot on, can be out by a millimetre or so but no more. When you are building something 17 or 18 or even 23 mtr wide and you may only be out by such a small margin, you measure, measure and measure again.
And it fits!
This is what we like to see. A job well done!
Hats off to all our employees that worked on this crane, now I just have to collect the bucks, and that is not always an easy feat either, especially not in this economic climate!
