Crane manufacturer Condra Cranes is manufacturing three new cranes and refurbishing 14 others as certified steel round bar, hollow bar and plate supplier Special Steels moves to bigger premises.

Each of the 17 machines will be delivered, installed and commissioned according to a specific timetable that dovetails with the move, which Special Steels is undertaking in phases to ensure uninterrupted steel deliveries to its customers during the process.

Special Steels is moving from a 7 000 m2 property in Wadeville to larger 22 800 m2 premises in Roodekop, both in Ekurhuleni. The new premises will provide much-needed extra warehouse space to meet increasing demand for the company’s alloy and low-, medium- and high-carbon steels.

“[The] Roodekop [premises’ floor area] will accommodate increased stockholdings as well as the specialised equipment we use to cut, bore and finish steel to exact customer requirements. It will also provide space to expand our precision-cutting and profiling capabilities, deep-hole drilling, facing and centring services,” explains Special Steels MD Byron Ferguson.

The workflow and logistics of the Special Steels cranes are being carefully planned and coordinated.

In line with the move, Special Steels ordered the new cranes in July, and requested the refurbishment of a further 14 cranes, which are currently in use at the Wadeville warehouse, in August.

“The refurbishment order is the biggest for this service yet received by Condra Cranes. It includes not only comprehensive inspection and repair of the 14 overhead cranes in use at the current warehouse, but also a substantial change to their dimensions,” a Condra Cranes spokesperson said in a statement to Engineering News & Mining Weekly.

The spans will be extended by 1.5 m to fit Roodekop’s wider bays, and hoist lifting heights will be increased from 6 m to 8.5 m, which will be undertaken alongside the inspection and replacement of brakes and bearings, a check of all mechanicals and electricals and careful realignment of crane girders and crabs to ensure true-running frames.

Of the 14 cranes to be refurbished, seven are Condra Cranes machines covered by the company’s maintenance programme, with the company assuming responsibility for the maintenance of the remaining refurbished cranes.

Condra delivered, installed and commissioned the three newly manufactured cranes in September as the first step in the programme.

These are 2 m class workshop machines already at an advanced stage of production, featuring standard speeds, variable drives on all motions and remote control supported by pendant backup.

Two will be identical 10 t units servicing the same bay and spanning 29.4 m, while the third, a 25 t capacity crane spanning 18.3 m, will replace a competitor’s crane, which is to be scrapped.

The first three refurbished cranes will be delivered this month, followed by three next month, four in December and the final four in January.

“Each refurbished crane has its own timetable for removal from the Wadeville warehouse, transportation to Condra Crane’s factory in Germiston, stripping, inspection, girder extension, refurbishment, reassembly and transportation to the new warehouse in Roodekop for installation and commissioning.”

Condra Cranes will also move and reinstall three jib cranes, relatively new machines, as part of the contract.

Crane refurbishment is frequently undertaken by Condra Cranes, owing to cost savings compared with buying new machines, coupled with the advantage of continued use of an as-new machine with which crane operators are already familiar, which eliminates the need for retraining. Additionally, production can continue with no change to established procedures.

Condra Cranes offers the options of changing the crane span during refurbishment, as well as crane capacity, and modifying the gear reduction and electrical input.

Cranes 20 years or older can usually be improved by installing variable frequency drives to facilitate acceleration and deceleration, while enhancements, such as a digital read-out on the load and remote control, can also be fitted.