Peter Wilson, Director of Independent Tube Mills (ITM), recently began planning the company’s new purpose-built manufacturing facility in Melbourne’s western suburbs and had no hesitation in specifying overhead cranes from Konecranes to do the heavy lifting required.
ITM specialized in the manufacture of high quality tubular steel products and has invested in the very latest technology available in rolled steel manufacturing. The Konecranes lifting technology involved is part of an extensive range used by industries including automotive production, energy and resources, manufacturing, metal and mineral processing, primary product and paper processing and ports and infrastructure projects globally.
Mr Wilson explained that the company has the capacity to produce 55,000 tons of steel tube a year, and needed to manoeuvre some very heavy loads around the facility, with some lifts involving weights of up to 17 tonne. It is far safer for the operator to can stand at a distance from the load, controlling the crane by radio remote control.
“We utilise a CXT 20 tonne hoist, on a double girder, to unload the coils when they come in on the trucks. At present, we are averaging three B-doubles a day.
“The coils weigh around 16 to 17 tons, and sit in a specially designed cradle. The crane picks them up and put them down in their respective place in the warehouse.
“With these cranes we can unload a truck easily within 25-30 minutes and load a semi within 40-45 minutes.
ITM also have a CXT 16 ton crane to service the mill. It loads the coil on and off the mill and it can be used to service the bundler when necessary to quickly and efficiently remove any rejects. They also have a 10 ton twin hook rotating crane from Konecranes which picks material up off the transfer table of the bundler on the end of the mill. It rotates and brings the material down and stores the product in the warehouse.
Mr Wilson says he has been very impressed with Konecranes, and if he were contemplating doing the project again, he would not think twice about purchasing Konecranes again.
Mr Wilson also commented that he didn’t hesitate signing with Konecranes for maintenance.
Konecranes has built its most advanced safety, ergonomic and reliability technologies into its high performance CXT series of industrial cranes and wire rope hoists.
CXT cranes with individual hoist capacities up to 80 tons – and complementary CXT wire rope hoists – are designed to be industry benchmarks of safety and ergonomics, with easy and effective load handling and optimum dimensions for space saving solutions.
Warren Ashton, Konecranes National Sales and Marketing Manager also explained, “Not only is the CXT hoist a forerunner in technological terms, the build of the hoist allows ease of maintenance and sourcing of spare parts simple and economical. Whilst we recommend Konecranes as the service provider of choice, any service agent with basic crane knowledge and experience can effectively maintain a CXT hoist through its lifetime.”
CXT cranes feature excellent hook approaches at both ends of the crane and the headroom requirement is minimal. CXT cranes are designed to eliminate unused or under-utilised areas because the crane can operate closer to the walls and lift the load higher.
Inverter controls deliver smooth starts, acceleration and deceleration, which minimises load swing and enables fast and accurate load positioning. Konecranes Dynafamily inverter controls and pole changing controls are standard options for crane and trolley travelling on CXT cranes.
To meet specific load handling capacity and factory size requirements, CXT cranes are available in single and double girder construction with profile or box girder design. Top connections and underhung main girder connections are available for different building heights and constructions.
Duty classification, speeds, control methods and a wide range of available additional features are used to tailor the CXT crane to meet exact operational and environmental application requirements.
