ZWEIBRÜCKEN, Germany –September 10,2019 –“Large lifting companies with multiple craneshave options to get jobs done. I don’t have that luxury,” comments Steve Kelly,owner/operator of Steel Giraffe LLC. The Portsmouth, R.I.-based “boutique”crane company doesn’t search out the typical residential and commercialconstruction projects. Rather, Steel Giraffe completes specialized liftingprojects, and 90 percent of its lift jobs fall within a 30-mi (48-km) radius ofthe headquarters location.
Many lifting projects last less than a half-day, so Steel Giraffeneeds a flexible crane that can get in, quickly finish and get to the next job.However, the company’s 25-U.S.-ton (22.7-t) carry deck crane previously useddidn’t quite fit, and the transport costs were cutting into profits.
Steel Giraffe needed a different type of crane, one that better fitits needs. While Kelly had a 35-U.S.-ton (31.8-t) crane in mind, Justin Melvin,general manager for Empire Crane, an authorized Demag Mobile Cranes distributorsays, “His business model needed the 50-U.S.-ton (45-t) class Demag®AC 45 City crane. It was built for companies who need mobility and work incrowded metropolitan areas.”
A great fit
Kelly worked with Empire to get a preview of the AC 45 City. It has a single cab from which the operatorboth drives the crane to the project and operates the boom. “For our work, asecond cab is just wasted space and time,” he adds.
The crane’s capacity chart and boom design were what sold Kelly onworking with Empire Crane to purchase the AC 45 City. The three-axle craneoffers a maximum main boom of 102.4 ft (31.2 m) and a maximum 145-ft (44.2-m)system length. Boom extension is fully hydraulic, allowing Steel Giraffe toextend or retract the boom with a load and without the need for pinning a boomsection.
Melvin explains that pinned boom designs are commonly found onlarger cranes for strength but limit the versatility of smaller city-classcranes. Kelly adds, “We handle a lot of pick-and-carry loads, and the abilityfor us to fully extend or retract the boom under load is critical.”
Tight quarters
Steel Giraffe took delivery of the Demag AC 45 City crane in lateMarch. The crane’s versatility and capacity chart were instrumental in helpingthe company land a tricky project on the Mt. Hope Bridge connecting the RhodeIsland towns of Portsmouth and Bristol. The 90-year-old structure that predatesthe Great Depression is currently in the midst of a10-year, $52 millionrestoration project.
The current construction phase consists of repairing the bridge pieranchors’ degraded concrete. Work crews needed to have construction materialsand containers transferred to the work platform at water level. “One option wasto position a crane on a barge in the water to transfer the materials, but thiswould have been costly,” explains Kelly.
Steel Giraffe quoted the projectusing its AC 45 City crane positioned on the bridge deck to lower materialsmore than 100 ft (30.5 m) to the work platform below. The first challenge wasto ensure the deck could hold the weight of the crane with load. “The planningsoftware was helpful in determining the weight, radius and outrigger setting toprovide printed proof the bridge deck had the capacity,” he adds. “Both EmpireCrane and Demag worked with us to help prepare the plan.”
The next challenge for Steel Giraffe was to hoist the materialswithout blocking both traffic lanes. Melvin explains, “The Mt. Hope Bridge onlycarries two lanes of traffic, and each lane measures only 11-ft (3.4 m) wide,so this was a perfect test of the AC 45 City’s compact design.” Fromcounterweight to boom to jib, everything rides on the crane’s trim 28.4-ft-longby 8.3-ft-wide (8.7- x 2.5-m) carrier.
The plan called for the AC 45 City crane to be positioned in onelane, leaving the other open to traffic. Steel Giraffe devised a plan using a26-ft (7.9-m) boom radius with small outrigger basis. The night lift alsohelped to minimize traffic disruptions.
Steel Giraffe drove the AC 45 City approximately 6 mi (9.7 km) tothe project site and arrived by 9 p.m. The crew had the crane rigged andhook-ready to by 10 p.m. Kelly appreciated the ability to drive and operate thecrane from the same cab without needing to exit.
IC-1 Plus – a game changer
A plus for companies like Steel Giraffe, especially on atight-quarters project like the Mt. Hope Bridge, are the crane’s IC-1 Pluscontrol system and asymmetric outrigger positioning. The system automaticallydetermines the available lifting capacity, based on outrigger set-up and slewing angle, so it does not limit liftingcapacity to a 360-degree load chart.
“This is a game-changer for me,” says Kelly. “If we cannot fullyextend one of the outriggers, we are not limited to the 360-degree load charts.”Melvin continues, “This allows companies to plan their lifts for maximumavailable capacity over the outriggers, which can enable them to completeheavier lifts with less counterweight, as it was the case with the 360-degreesload charts.”
Kelly also noticed significantdifferences with the IC-1 Plus display compared to other crane models in thisclass. He compared the black-and-white displays with pushbuttons found on othercranes to an old hand-held video game. “The AC 45 City has a nice full-color screenand intuitive touchscreen control to easily navigate,” he says.
Ease of crane operation helped Steel Giraffe to complete nearly 20picks in less than five hours, where crew members lowered a variety ofequipment from compressors and generators to paint and tools to the workplatform. The heaviest lifts consisted of two, 10-ft (3.0-m) steel shippingcontainers loaded with equipment, weighing 6,000 lb (2.7 t) each. Finishing alllifts by 2:30 a.m., the crew then derigged the AC 45 City to make its 10-minutetrip back to headquarters.
Kelly believes it might have been possible to complete this projectwith the company’s old carry deck crane, but it would have been much more timeconsuming and cumbersome for transport and prep. “We would have needed a lowboyto move the carry deck crane. Transport limited us to completing only onehalf-day job per day with the carry deck crane,” he explains. “It was so quickand easy to get back to the shop driving the AC 45 City. We are now completingtwo to three jobs per day with the AC 45 City.”
Navigating the AC 45 City crane through the crowded Portsmouthstreets is getting Steel Giraffe noticed, not only for the crane’s uniquegiraffe decaling but also for the crane’s capabilities. “We are now receivingcalls from larger crane companies to handle their overflow work. We did not getthose calls in the past,” explains Kelly.
Steel Giraffe finally has the crane it needs to match its small“boutique” lifting company business model in the Demag AC 45 City. “With itscapacity and boom length, I know the AC 45 will give me the flexibility tohandle many lift jobs,” he says. “If I could design a crane for what we do,this is the crane I would design.”
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Part of Tadano Group., theDemag brand embodies a 200-year legacy of providing intelligent and innovativelifting solutions that give customers a decisive competitive edge. Demag city,all terrain and lattice boom crawler cranes offer capacities from 45t to 3,200t(50 to 3,520 USt) to increase lifting efficiencies on a range ofinfrastructure, renewable energy, building and heavy civil construction,utilities, and refining projects .Innovations like Sideway Superlift, BoomBooster, award winning Fall Protection, IC-1 Remote, IC-1 Plus, technologieshave advanced machine performance, safety and efficiency. Global Demag salesand service networks provide unmatched experience, high reliability and shortresponse time. More information on Demag mobile crane equipment, services andtechnologies can be found on its website: www.demagmobilecranes.com, onits LinkedIn page -- www.linkedin.com/company/demagmobilecranes,Facebook page -- www.facebook.com/DemagMobileCranes , Instagram page -- www.instagram.com/demagmobilecranes , and on itsTwitter page -- www.twitter.com/DemagMobilKrane