Lifting and Access Gear Working Together to Get Jobs Done

Wednesday 21 October 2015 @ 15:22

Brisbane–based Universal Cranes has been making some hard jobs simpler and safer, by bringing access equipment to the equation. There is a synergy between lifting and access gear, and Universal Cranes has found it, and is using it.

What’s going on here in this picture, is a job Universal Cranes recently undertook in Brisbane. Universal Cranes was contracted to transport to, and erect in place, a fibreglass tank at a chemical plant. The tank was about 2.5 tonnes, 10m tall and 3.5 m round. The job entailed one pick and carry crane, a Terex® Franna Mac 25, and a Terex® Demag 55 hydraulic slew crane, removing the tank from a truck, then moving it into its correct, final position on site. The rigging work for both the 25 tonne and the 55 tonne Terex cranes was done by an operator in a Genie® Z™-60/34 articulating boom belonging to Universal Cranes. Working together, the task was completed in under three hours, and all involved were pleased with the successful result.

In this particular job, Universal Cranes was the owner and operator of all the key equipment involved – the two Terex cranes and the Genie articulating boom. According to Luke Henry, the company’s crane and sales supervisor, and job manager on this project, “The way it works at Universal Cranes is that when we supply lifting and access gear, it usually includes supplying operators for the job too, for all the equipment. While we do offer our access equipment for hire, we mostly use it in-house on our own jobs – just like the one in the photo.”

The trend of using access equipment with lifting equipment has become more widespread, Luke Henry believes. At Universal Cranes, for example, he says “Many of our workforce have EWP (Elevated Work Platform) tickets, and nearly 100% of our riggers have this qualification, it just makes them more versatile.

“In our fleet we also have Genie® S™-80 and Genie® S™-45 boom lifts, as well as many scissor lifts, which are mostly used by our riggers to assist our crane operators. The fact is, there’s a natural fit or synergy between access and lifting gear and what each piece of equipment can do. By us being able to provide both to our customers means we can service them better which gives us more to offer them – so everybody benefits.”