NORTH Coast Cranes & Lifting, the Richards Bay-based lifting equipment company, has won separate orders for Condra cranes to be installed in a chemical element refinery furnace and on a mining dredge. And an order for two further machines is expected.
North Coast Cranes is Condra’s northern KwaZulu-Natal agent, with a mandate to install and commission machines as they arrive from the main Johannesburg factory, and provide scheduled maintenance and on-call service support. Annual load tests and the quarterly sling inspections required by law are also carried out.
“The agent has a very strong customer focus, concentrating on service and maintenance capability rather than equipment sales. All brands of lifting equipment are supported, but orders for complete cranes are usually met by Condra,” Condra said in a statement.
The first of the two orders just received is for a 10-ton, 6,5-metre-span Condra furnace crane. This will be a double-girder electric overhead underslung machine supporting an underslung crab and foot-mounted hoist moving between two girders arranged as an extendable boom to allow the retrieval of casting pots from an adjacent bay.
Lift height will be 15,2 metres, with lift speeds of up to eight metres per minute delivered by a variable-speed drive. Further drives of the same type will achieve speeds of up to 16m/min on the cross travel, and 30,7m/min on the long travel. Travel on the telescopic boom will be 4,3 metres per minute.
Brakes and electrical enclosures will be water-proofed to IP65 standard, with the electrical box itself being fabricated from stainless steel instead of the more common powder-coated mild steel. The electrical supply to the telescopic section will additionally be protected by a cable drag chain in place of the usual festoon system.
There will be limit switches on all motions.
The second order is for a maintenance and repair machine to be installed on a mining dredge. It will be a 10-ton, 13,5-metre span Condra portal crane of straightforward design with cantilevers to allow equipment to be lifted and lowered from adjacent vessels.
The lift height of this machine will be 12 metres. Service platforms with cat ladders and lockable gates will be fitted to legs at both ends.
North Coast Cranes & Lifting took the orders for the two cranes in early November. Delivery is scheduled for the end of January 2021.
Immediately before delivery, corrosion-resistant finishes will be applied in an environmentally-friendly emission-filtered chamber by Rust Busters, the Wadeville-based abrasives blasting and coating company. The special finish will comprise a zinc phosphate primer followed by layered two-component epoxies.
“The new orders will further add to Condra’s already substantial installed base of cranes in and around Richards Bay,” the company said.
