Considerations When Making a Purchase

Overhead travelling cranes are big machines with price tags to match. A purchase dents even the most generous capital expenditure budget. For this reason, price often heads the list of factors holding sway over the buying decision.

But is price the right focus? Could a pricebased decision be flawed not only because it ignores maintenance costs, but also because it overlooks production losses should the crane be forced to stop work for any reason? Condra believes that the buying focus should be different. First, South it should be on the total cost to company over the life of Africa’s big the crane instead of on four crane companies initial capital cost alone, have strong reputations and second, it should for technical capability examine the projected and long product life if their cranes are operated productive uptime of the crane based on back-up service and the lead time under the right on spare parts manufacconditions tured abroad.

Strong reputations

Marc Kleiner, Condra’s managing director, is the first to point out that South Africa’s Big Four crane companies have strong reputations for technical capabilities and

Condra’s managing director, Marc Kleiner

long product lives if their cranes are operated under the right conditions. But he points out that African operating environments are often less forgiving than those in Europe.

Completed double-girder overhead crane leaving Condra’s Johannesburg factory for delivery by road by sister company, Transcon Haulers

And, he adds, European players manufacture only the steel structures of their overhead cranes in Africa. All key components such as hoists and end-carriages are imported. So what does this mean in practical, useful terms?

Questions raised

Marc lists a few questions that any overhead crane buyer should ask before deciding on a supplier, and explains the potential impact of each of them on running costs and production. If the tendered price of a crane with imported components is low, how has that price been achieved with a weak rand? In other words, the low price is made possible by a sub-par crane. Secondly, is the proposed crane the best machine for the operational environment? What is the reputation of the proposed brand in terms of product reliability under these conditions? Marc believes that it is the durability of the crane that determines the customer’s productivity and the ideal crane is one that continues working without the breakdowns that cause production stoppages. “Thirdly, customers need to think of spare parts and their delivery time. Ordering from Europe is expensive because of exchange rates and the time taken for them to arrive and be installed can take up to two months, resulting in a long downtime,” he says. In addition, after sales service is a must. A company that does not have a local office could be problematic in terms of response time. Marc goes on to mention standards. Is the crane the most suitable for the job at hand? Is the machine fast enough, durable enough and reliable enough? Lifting capabilities also need to be considered. “International standards state the lifting height of more than 25 metres as very high, but perhaps the job requires lifting higher than that,” he adds.

Case in point

Marc uses the Condra K-Series of cranes that use motor-starting silumin rotor cores to enhance torque in the high-lift role, and has developed variable speed control levels on the drives to enable precise load positioning even on lifts of 100 metres or more. Hoist speeds of between zero and 60 metres per minute, and travel speeds of between zero and 200 metres per minute are possible. Condra, Marc Kleiner Tel: (011) 776-6000 Email: sales@condra.co.za www.condra.co.za

If the tendered price of a crane with imported components is low, how has that price been achieved with a weak rand? In other words, the low price is made possible by a sub-par crane