BELOW THE HOOK Ӏ NOVEMBER 2022
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33-storey, 47,000 square metre tower block of reinforced and
pre-cast concrete in Tokyo’s Tama City district. This is the first time a tower crane has been completely autonomous on a construction site. The system uses SMCC’s
Construction Information system, created in the cloud, and integrates it with construction data such as the current load position, BIM construction data, precast element data and work process data supplied through the crane and the Roborigger. Construction plan information, based on BIM data, is registered in the cloud. RFID tags attached to each pre-cast element are read at the time of delivery to the site and the unique numbers of the elements are automatically collated. GNSS (Global navigation satellite system) is used to obtain information on the position and
Modulift lift modular
In the UK especially, but globally also, places to live cost a lot of money. An affordable home of their own is currently out of reach of very many who aspire to ownership. The price of land, and the shortage of existing housing stock, are contributory reasons, but important also is the construction cost of building a new house. Bricks, mortar and concrete are slow, labour-intensive and ineffi cient ways to build. Hence the interest – from both government and public and private investors - in modular construction, also known as pre-fabricated or off-site builds: units, generally complete rooms - sometimes even ready-fi tted with plumbing and electrical connections, are assembled cheaply and effi ciently on factory production-lines, transported to the site, and then lifted into position. As with the cargo containers above, some sort of below-the-hook devices are needed. Modulift, the lifting equipment specialist based in Poole, Dorset, UK has seen
a large increase in the number of projects in the modular building market over the last few months involving products from their spreader beam range. “The modular building market has been steadily increasing over the last
ten years,” says John Baker, commercial director for Modulift. “A number of companies have been offering modular solutions both here in the UK as well as internationally to combat fi nancial pressures, time constraints and meet environmental targets around sustainablity. “As a result Modulift has seen an increase in the need for their products for this application, from the smallest in our range, the MOD 6, right up to the MOD 250 for transporting and installing modular buildings.” “We’re seeing a lot of companies enquire with us about our spreader beam range specifi cally to use in the modular building market. We keep a large stocked warehouse of our off-the-shelf products so we can deliver to our customers within one working day. Obviously, we appreciate that not everything can be done with the 'one size fi ts all solution' and if customers require custom built lifting frames for their project we can design, manufacture and deliver all within a four-week time frame.” A recent example is from one of Modulift’s returning customers, who recently completed a new Modular hotel. The project involved modular hotel rooms weighing 18.5 tonnes separated by an integral central corridor; it used both MOD 24’S and a MOD 50 for a one over two solution to complete the installation.
orientation of the precast elements as they are sitting on the ground and when in mid-air, and this information is linked with the other systems for safe, smoother and quicker installation. Software automatically generates the optimum lifting route for each element, based on the construction plan information. Once the operator confirms it on the monitor the craen automatically lifts each element and carries it from the lifting point to the installation point. The Roborigger provides a vital step in the process by rotating the load to its required delivery orientation and feeding its data to the software. Tower cranes require
experienced operators, and worker shortage issues are a growing concern. The automated system is a possible solution. It is also safer and
easier to operate an automatic tower crane than a manually-controlled one. The development would seem a major step in the automation of the construction industry. Verton and Roborigger have just
recently – this September (2022) - been joined by a third system. The Vita Inclinata Load Navigator, from Vita Industrial, is being trialled by various construction companies around the world – see box p134. It, too, fits between hook and load and in outline resembles a spreader beam with add-ons; but unlike its antipodean cousins it does not rely on gyroscopic action or rotating wheels. Instead it has air thrusters – ducted fans that look a little like a small jet engine – mounted at each end of the beam and at right angles to it; when they are operating they blow air in a tangential direction and thus
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CRANES TODAY 133
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