SECTOR REPORT Ӏ MINI-CRANES
j box below – gave us his views:
“I wouldn’t pick on tower cranes alone” he says. “Mini-cranes can operate in a way that is a lot more specialised than some of the big- crane people realise. Not so long ago there were many hard-to-reach
areas on a construction site. You might have men taking the roof off a building, or needing a load lifted into a building or completely over a building to a courtyard. Minicranes can get into those hard-to-reach areas.
“And rather than bring out a 60t crane to do a small lift, with a mini-crane you’ve got the option of going over a building or through a door. The market has become more aware and more educated as to the capability of these machines.
f High-tech, all-dancing - or rugged, simple, and lasting forever?
Dan Ezzatvar is marketing and special products manager at mini-crane specialist GGR. GGR is the UK distributor for Unic mini-cranes – and are also, as he points out, operator of the largest mini-crane fl eet in Europe. He gave Cranes Today a rundown of the current and past market for mini-cranes as he sees it. And he also addresses the question in our headline: what is most desirable in a mini-crane? All the latest digital sophistication or a simple machine that is rugged, non- nonsense and will be contain no tech that will be obsolescent in fi ve years’ time? The answer, he says,comes down to
personal preference – and there are now enough mini-cranes around to sit every taste. Japanese makers Maeda and Unic,
Ezzatvar explains, loom large in the history of the mini-crane. “Over the years they – and we, because we talk to Unic a lot - played an instrumental role in driving the mini-crane markets, not just in the UK, but overseas.” Some mini-cranes are all-singing, all- dancing with the latest digital tech. That is not the philosophy followed by all. At Bauma this October Ezzatvar was showing the Unic 345 eco tracked spider-crane. “These are well-built
solid simple, reliable machines, for rental or for ownership by the end user,” he says. “Unic mini-cranes share a lot of common traits in terms of parts, and
how they are operated. If you can use their small mini-cranes, the pedestrian-operated ones, you can use the ride-ones as well. Mini-cranes are a type comparatively new to the market – in the US and China, for example, they have yet to achieve full penetration; Japan is where they can be said to have originated. “Historically, of course, the main players in the mini-crane fi eld have been Unic and Maida,” says Ezzetvar. “And what we do with these products is we bring them in from Japan, then C-certify them – that is, we ensure that they are to European standards for sale within Europe. “Over the years, naturally enough, competition has come into the market. A lot of features have been added, a lot of technology – there has been a big evolution. Notably you get this from the European manufacturers. And there are all of these extra functions – and don’t get me wrong, you have to admire the fl air and the fi nesse and the ingenuity of them and the sheer creativity – but some of the innovations are arguably overkill. As on a laptop computer, from the end user perspective there are features and functions in there which the vast majority of owners wouldn't use at all. “Of course they are there
... and unfolded
for a reason: it is market driven. The market is always going to call for what it wants, or for what thinks it wants, and the market has fallen for this development. Manufacturers respond to what customers ask for, so on the 345 eco, for example, we have the hydraulic fl yjibs, in part as a response to that demand. “But on digital sophistication, that market demand puts manufacturers like Unic into a kind of Catch-22 situation, where we have a proven machine that is more than capable of doing the job and where the innovation around us is arguably overkill.
The Unic 345 tracked mini-crane folded...
These digitally-oriented machines are more complicated and more diffi cult to maintain. You don’t necessarily share common parts; you only have to look at them to see that there's a lot more going on. That may suit an end user if they get their head around it. But would they use every single function on that machine? Defi nitely not. “And that’s where the difference lies – with each individual user. There are people who want the sophistication, but then there are other people who might say ‘because this is more easy to operate and to understand, that’s where the attraction is.’ “So you’ve now got a range of products on
the market that cater to individual user tastes. For us, the bottom line is this: You can go onto used crane websites and you’ll see Unic machines or Maeda machines from 15 years back and more and they are still well up to the job of safe and reliable lifting. They are built to last. They are big and
chunky things in comparison with the more sleek-looking competition, but you know that the sleek-looking cranes are not going to have that same degree of longevity. I can't predict the future but one thing I can assure you: in fi ve to ten years you’ll see the more rugged machines holding a good resale value. “I will say again that GGR has the biggest mini-crane fl eet in Europe. Our business would not have been as successful as it is if we hadn’t got things right. The cranes we offer are more simple to use, they are available now and they will last. In holding to that philosophy we believe we have an answer that is viable in the marketplace.”
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