SEGMENT REPORT Ӏ KNUCKLEBOOMS
truck dimensions are bigger, so compactness does not concern them.”
And again tradition and local history have their effect: “Straightboom truck cranes are very prevalent in the States: it is where they are developed. You don’t find too many of them elsewhere. But knucklebooms are getting more popular, even there. In fact, they are now outselling straightbooms. They are more expensive but they are becoming a popular product where they were little seen before.” “In the US, Amco Veba has a niche in small cranes of 1 to 8tm mounted in a small vehicle such as a pickup or a trailer,” says Catellani. “The other popular capacity there is the 15 to 30tm range.” At the other end of the capacity range but also for America, Amco Veba in February this year launched a knuckleboom which has what they say is the best lifting capacity in its segment, the 60tm VR60NG. Later in the year they will compliment it with a 40tm model. “These will span the high-capacity
PM knuckleboom cranes performing a tendem lift.
range; they are for a global market, but we expect particular interest from the US and Canada for the oil and gas industry.” “The US has several application-focused sectors where knuckbooms play a key role,” says Gelis of Hiab and Effer. “One is the tree-care segment, where our Effer brand has a long history and strong market share. Another is the delivery of drywall for house- building; the Hiab drywall crane has been specially developed for that.”
Oberleitner of Palfinger finds
the same US niche: “There, as in Europe, knuckleboom trucks are standard for housebuilders. They look very much like European knucklebooms,” he says, “but the truth is that they are used differently. Most houses there are made of ready-made drywall elements—prefabricated walls if you like—and the main purpose of the knuckleboom vehicle is to lift these elements, to the second or at most the third storey. This is a very specific application, one that you will only find in the US and Canada, and Palfinger has a
specific range of models, the PW range, to serve it. It has a very long main boom, and generally four extensions to the telescopic boom, which together give the ideal geometry to reach a three-storey roofline. It has a simpler structure than our TEC range; there is nothing complex there; and the crane does not fold up behind the cab as a European knuckleboom would. Instead it allows itself a bit more space and stows in-line, over the truck deck and the cargo. It is not brutally engineered to the nth degree to save every inch. The focus is on reliability and doing the job, of a loader and deliverer to a set height. It is challenging work because it is doing lots of load cycles, so durability and reliability are necessary. The dry- wall knuckleboom is very much dedicated to its job, and there are a lot of those jobs around.” “And there is another type of
crane truck that is very specific to the US market, which is the service truck,” he says. “In Europe if you have a big bulldozer and it has a problem it will have a digital self-diagnosis system on board,
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