PICK AND CARRY CRANES Ӏ SECTOR SNAPSHOT
application is installing gantry
cranes in factories where you have virtually no headroom. “In Australia, a swimming
pool manufacturer called Plungie Pools uses Franna pick and carry cranes to move pre-cast concrete swimming pools down the side of houses to the back garden, and that company has just started doing business in Texas. Without that method of moving the pre-cast pools, you would need a crane with capacity of at least 250t to lift the pool over the house.” Another market being targeted
by Franna is India, where the brand has a long and interesting history. Around 20 years ago, Indian
company Escorts commissioned Franna with designing a pick and carry crane, which it then manufactured, using the Franna name – which is now synonymous with pick and carry cranes in the country, says Pritchard, in a similar way to the name Hoover is used as a by-word for vacuum cleaners. As a result, ‘Franna’ is a byword
for any pick and carry crane in India, explains Pritchard. And the pick and carry market
in the subcontinent is huge with around 8,000 of the cranes sold into the market each year compared to around 300 new cranes in Australia. Franna entered the India market
directly two years ago when it started producing its 17t-capacity FR17C – the model was chosen as it could be manufactured at a suitable price for the region. While it isn’t as advanced as the models produced for the Australia and the US it meets the demands of the market – including its Tier 3 engine being able to process fuel of a lower purity, as is more common in the region, which could damage a Tier 4 or 5 engine. The same model was also
launched into the Brazil market earlier this year, with launches into
40 CRANES TODAY
The MC250. FL1 from JMG combines a pick and carry crane with a forklift
the Middle East and South Africa due to follow. “The Latin America market is going to be big,” says Pritchard, noting that Franna has had some orders already.
HOME SWEET HOME FOR JMG In May, Italian pick and carry crane manufacturer JMG Cranes celebrated the opening of its new HQ, which the company calls la Cittadella delle Gru, in Sarmato. That location – a town in the
Province of Piacenza, in the north- west of Italy – was where founder Maurizio Manzini purchased the company’s first warehouses. The new facility covers 63
hectares, of which 8,000sqm are allocated to production, and 11,000sqm to green spaces. The area was formerly the site of the Eridania sugar refinery, which had been disused since 2002. JMG is a specialist in electric cranes, and has an 18-strong engineering team. At the opening
event, Matteo Montagna, head of the R&D department at JMG, mentioned a new technology that the company is currently exploring: hydrogen-powered cranes. “We are ready to take the next
step towards fuel cell batteries, responding to our customers’ needs,” said Montagna. “It is certainly not a step we will take tomorrow, it requires two years of study, but we believe that fuel cells are the technological destiny of our machines and, more generally, of all operating machines. “Because it is the only available technology today that can unite all operational needs without compromising an equally important need, called sustainability.” While hydrogen-powered
cranes may be a little while away yet, JMG’s electric cranes are offering benefits to end users today. Shortly after the opening of the new facility, JMG exhibited at the Pipeline & Gas Expo in Piacenza, a trade show
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