Manitowoc to launch new flat tops
Two new tower cranes on show at Bauma China
Manitowoc has announced it will show off two new topless tower cranes from its Potain brand at this year’s bauma China 2014 in Shanghai.The new models are the latest innovations from the company’s Zhangjiagang plant in China, which earlier this year celebrated the delivery of its 5,000th crane since production began in 2006.
The MCT 205 has a 10t maximum capacity and can lift 1.75t at its maximum jib end of 65m, while the smaller MCT 85 has a 5t maximum capacity and an ability to lift 1.1t at its jib end of 52m.
Leong Kwong-Joon, regional product manager for tower cranes at Manitowoc Cranes, explains that growing time pressures on job sites means the introduction of the MCT 205 (and the smaller MCT 85) will attract the attention of many tower crane users at the trade show.
“In China and across the rest of Asia, we’re seeing contractors wanting to place more tower cranes on job sites to accelerate construction schedules,” he says. “Because topless cranes have no cathead at the top, it’s easier to overlap them and overall crane working heights don’t need to be so high. Topless cranes are also faster and easier to erect. As a result, we expect strong interest in the new MCT 205 and MCT 85 cranes at bauma China.”
With a focus on fast erection, the complete upperworks for the MCT 205 can be assembled in four lifts. The heaviest group of components is just 7.9t and the full 65m jib can be placed in a single lift. Attention has been paid to transportation too, with three jib sections able to fit inside a standard container.
The small size of the MCT 85 makes the unit surprisingly easy to transport, with the entire top portion of the crane able to travel on just two trucks.
Again, on-site assembly is simplified thanks to the pre-assembly work done at the Zhangjiagang factory before the crane is delivered to the customer. For example, the counterjib and towerhead are fitted together as a single component and can be lifted as such.
Connecting the jib, is facilitated through the use of quick and easy pin-connectors. This means the entire tower crane’s upperworks is connected in just two sections.
Both topless cranes can be operated as an internal climbing crane, sitting inside the building it is constructing. When mounted on its 1.2m mast sections, the MCT 85 offers a maximum free-standing height of 33.2m when operating internally.
