TOWER CRANES Ӏ SECTOR REPORT
ToWERING up
Tower cranes are the standard on ob sites worldwide. Juian Champkin looks at the current crop.
Most tower cranes are made in China. Read Stuart Anderson’s history of the tower crane in our recent February 2022 issue of Cranes Today magazine if you don’t believe me. So if we are doing a global survey of the most ubiquitous of lifting machines, China is where we should probably start. So we begin with Potain’s
new 805 topless tower crane. It is made in their Zhangjiagang factory in China and is targeted to the Asia-Pacific and emerging markets; and they say this is their largest-ever crane for that region.
It is a high-capacity machine similar to their MDT 809 which was launched for the European and US markets in 2020. It comes in 32 tonne and 40 t capacity configurations, with an 80 m jib and a height under hook of 84 m. The high working height comes from a reinforced K-mast system with newly developed installation bases; Potain say that the 8 m cross-shaped base gives performance characteristics more commonly associated with
20 CRANES TODAY The Potain
MCT805, destined for Asia
a 10 m chassis. The counter-jib is no longer than 27.3 m, allowing 7.5 t capacity at 80 m reach. The maximum 32 t load capacity of the M32 version is available to distances of well over 22 m, while on the M40 version the 40 t maximum load can be handled out beyond 18.5 m. The tip loads are well suited to lifting heavier loads within the confined job sites so common in the region. The rotating section of the MCT 805 can be moved in either 10 or 11 loads; other 40 t capacity cranes can typically require up to 14 containers for transport. The jib is designed so that all its sections can fit inside a standard container: it measures just 1.55 m wide and under 2.5 m high.
Transport and erection
requirements are claimed as best-in-class for a crane of 800 mt and on par with 450 mt cranes. The crane can be assembled with its full 80 m jib to 50 m working height in less than three days – twice as fast, say Potain, as conventional 40 t cranes. “The advantages of fast assembly and compact design are really driving the growth in demand for topless cranes,” says Thibaut Le Besnerais, vice president, brand and product management for tower cranes at Potain Manitowoc, “but the growing popularity of modular construction methods is also creating greater need for higher- capacity models. So the early success of the MDT 809 made it apparent that other regions served by our Zhangjiagang factory would also enjoy the benefits of its innovations, which made the decision to launch the MCT 805 relatively easy. But it has other innovations as well: for instance, there are features that simplify servicing, such as the
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