Capital Equipment News December 2016

JOBSITE REPORT

The state-of-the-art Potain cab being positioned on the tower crane during the erection process.

Louw Smit, sales manager at SA French, Kobus van der Merwe, site agent at Probuild and Matthew Simmonds, contracts manager at Probuild, during the erection of the new Potain MCT85F5.

“We have evolved the system, which works very well for us. We continue to grow and become more professional than we were in the last few years. Collectively as SA French we boast 300 years of experience in the tower crane industry.”

The jib foot being connected to the slew turret during crane erection.

lane road closure to allow the rigging of a mobile crane,” says Van Breda. This also saved costs related to the hiring of the mobile crane for erection purposes. Louw says this erecting methodology was achieved through careful planning and understanding of the related constraints of erecting cranes on such space limited sites. “Obviously space is a premium on this particular site. Luckily the Potain MD310B was in capacity of what we needed to lift – 3,2 t and 7 m components – which are still in spec,” says Smit. Working spec On this specific site, the Potain MCT85F5 was erected with a 45 m jib, and not its maximum 52 m. “With a 45 m jib, the crane can lift 5 t up to 16,3 m and 1,65 t at 45 m,” says Smit. The crane has been erected on a set of reusable fixing angles to a hook height of 34,1 m. The crane will be anchored to the building in the first quarter of 2017 and telescoped to its final height of 46 m. Erection took two days to complete. First day entailed loading and lifting the tower into place. The second day saw the jib and counter jib erected into place. The tower was erected to a hook height

Breda, adding that the company has paid incredible school fees to get to the level it is now. This manifests itself in the form of great- er support and strong relations SA French has with its customers. Van Breda says, despite seemingly tough times in the local construction industry, Probuild’s growth over the last eight years has been phe- nomenal, and SA French continues to grow together with the client. For example, 12% of SA French’s turn- over is from Probuild, on the rental side of the business. SA French currently has an extensive rental fleet from 22 mt hydraulic self-erectors to 310 mt saddle jib cranes. To date, Probuild has five cranes on hire and now owns two Potain cranes of its own. The Potain MCT85F5 joins the exist- ing Potain MD175B erected at the Tyrwhitt Project in Rosebank. Simmonds explains why Probuild finds comfort in SA French. “From an availabil- ity point of view, SA French always has what we need and when we need it,” he says. “In terms of price, they are also very competitive. This is complemented by the turnaround times in terms of service and maintenance, which works very well for us as a strict deadline-driven business.” b

of 34,1 m with a jib of 45 m and a 11,5 m counter jib. The counterweight is 12 t, made up of 3 x 3 t blocks and 3 x 1 t blocks. The jib is made up of 1 x 10 m piece and a combination of 5 m and 10 m jib pieces. It took close to four hours on the first day to put up the tower. The components of the tower fitted in two trucks, while the jib and counter jib arrived on site in three trucks. The important thing was that trucks had to arrive in the sequence which the compo- nents would be erected. Close relations Close cooperation between SA French and Probuild, which dates back to as many as 20 years, won the day on this specialised lift project. A team of five experienced riggers, boasting experience of between five and 15 years, undertook the specialised erecting job with the precision it required. “It takes a whole lot of years of training and jobsite experience to get them to this level,” says Van Breda. “We have evolved the system, which works very well for us. We continue to grow and become more professional than we were in the last few years. Collectively as SA French we boast 300 years of experi- ence in the tower crane industry,” says Van

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