Chilean construction and energy concern Besalco has taken delivery of a South African manufactured hydroelectric turbine maintenance crane, tapping the experience of manufacturer Condra to meet the special high-lift requirement.

Johannesburg-based Condra shipped Besalco’s 70/10-ton machine in July, an important step towards building its high-lift profile abroad.

The crane will be installed at a new hydroelectric plant under construction in the south of Chile.

In Africa’s central and southern states, Condra has for many years been widely acknowledged as the market leader in high-lift crane design and manufacture, a reputation resting largely on the durability and reliability of the company’s K-Series hoist range.

Manufactured since 1972 and installed worldwide under a wide variety of operating conditions, Condra's robust K-Series has proved particularly dependable under the conditions of increased mechanical strain associated with high lift.

The installed base includes lift heights of an impressive 150 metres.

K-Series hoists are produced in three main configurations: foot-mounted, monorail and double-rail crab, with lifting and reeving arrangements that include centre-lift.

Fully covered hoists provide lifting capacities to 32 tons, while open-drum units have capacities in excess of 250 tons.

Features on all models include electromagnetic DC disc brakes, standard frame-size motors with parallel rotors, double-acting limit switches, solid bronze rope guides and totally enclosed splash-lubricated gearboxes.

Condra uses silumin rotor cores to enhance K-Series motor-starting torque in the high-lift role, and offers variable speed control on the drives to enable precise load positioning even on lifts of 100 metres and more.

The modular design of the K-Series allows rapid modification to specific high-lift application requirements (including lift speeds as quick as 1 metre per second – fifteen times faster than the 4 metres per minute found in standard mine workshop applications), resulting in delivery times that are usually the shortest available.

Standard hoist speeds go up to 18 metres per minute.

All Condra products are manufactured to ISO 9000 standard, with the full Condra range of cranes and hoists covering capacities from 250 kg to 500 tons.

Hoists with capacities of 2 tons and more are manufactured in Gauteng at the company’s premises in Raceway Industrial Park, while Condra serves as the sole South African distributor of Hitachi electric chain hoists for applications below 2 tons.

All Condra cranes and hoists are delivered with a two-year guarantee and optional service contracts.

The company boasts a manufacturing pedigree going back more than 50 years in manufacturing, construction and mining, and claims the highest local content of any overhead crane supplier in the central and southern African region.