PRODUCT FOCUS
Limit switches on the long-travel and cross-
travel, and armoured cabling on all wiring
are becoming standard features.
6. High-Lift Capability: Is the lifting
height greater than the 25 metres
classified by international standards as
very high?
If it is, then Kleiner recommends
that the Condra solution be considered,
because the company is widely
acknowledged as the regional market
leader in very high-lift applications. Key
to this is the company’s K-Series hoist
range, which has proved dependable,
durable and robust under the conditions
of increased mechanical strain associated
with the high-lift niche. The modular design
of the K-Series allows rapid modification to
specific high-lift application requirements,
and results in delivery times that are
usually the shortest available. Competitive
prices are the result of long production
runs of standard parts.
Condra uses silumin rotor cores to
enhance K-Series motor-starting 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 and more. Hoist
speeds of between zero and 60 metres per
minute, and travel speeds of between zero
and 200 metres per minute, are possible.
7. Overall Design: Can your preferred
supplier deliver the level of design
innovation required by the application?
Kleiner points out that Condra cranes
range in dimension and capacity from
modest to gigantic. A Port Elizabeth
pre-cast yard for coastal wind turbines,
for example, uses twin Class Three
portal machines, each one weighing
approximately 52 tons, with 30-metre
spans and 9-metre lift heights. They are
fitted with anemometers and Condra’s
patented storm brakes to prevent them
from being moved by the force of extreme
winds. The anemometers first sound a
siren at a wind speed of 50 km/h, then
automatically engage the storm brakes at
a wind speed of 70 km/h, overriding crane
operation and securing the machines
against further movement.
“We have just received an order for four
more portal cranes similar to the twins,”
says Kleiner.
“Our design capability is cutting
edge,” he continues. “For example,
Condra designed, manufactured and
supplied the portal crane that fast-
tracked the pre-sink phase at Venetia
diamond mine in 2014, and we have
since supplied two similar machines for
the same application to Asia.”
Kleiner explains that the Condra pre-
sink portal crane is radically different from
the level-luffing type of crane traditionally
used for pre‑sinking. Instead, a high-
speed, high-lift main hoist removes
excavated spoil vertically, by kibble,
through an opening in the centre of a
drilling stage positioned by two separate
stage‑winders mounted on the same
portal frame. Lift speed is an impressive
1 metre per second – fifteen times faster
than the 4 metres per minute found in
standard mine workshop applications.
Kleiner reckons that careful
consideration at the tender stage of
the answers to these seven questions
will generally result in a better buying
decision.
He points out that Condra maintains
a very tight focus on quality, and is
certified to ISO 9000. Cranes are
designed and assembled to specification
from hoists, drives, end‑carriages,
brakes, gearboxes and some 250 other
sub-assemblies produced in-group.
Two lines of hoists are manufactured
in a number of standard models suited
to most mining, industrial and general
applications, from 1 to 500 tons. Motors
are bought from external suppliers.
The company’s future seems bright.
Organised across three continents,
Condra’s Germiston works provides
leadership and design guidance to sister
factories in Cape Town, Bulgaria and
Chile, allowing the group to produce
hoists, end-carriages, single‑girder
and double-girder overhead travelling
cranes, portal cranes, bridge cranes and
cantilever cranes for markets worldwide.
Condra is expanding, with its head
office announcing in mid-2018 that a new
workshop is to be built in Cape Town to
provide easier access by sea to African
ports outside South Africa, in preparation
for the increase in crane and hoist orders
anticipated from countries to the north.
Inter-Africa deliveries are currently
made by road, using affiliated company
Transcon Haulers.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Single-girder electric overhead travelling crane undergoing test prior to delivery.
24
AUGUST 2019
Alan Thrush has spent the majority of
his adult life in marketing, primarily
as a consultant helping engineering
companies like Condra build their brands
and drive sales.
A published author (his novel Of
Land and Spirits topped the South
African bestseller lists in 1997), he has
run his own consultancy for 30 years,
until 2016 from Johannesburg where
Tony Koenderman’s Ad Review ranked
it among the country’ s most effective
“marketing kingpin” consultancies.
Besides Condra, Alan has worked
with leading brands such as AESSEAL,
Moeller, Dynamic Fluid Control, Rand-Air,
Metabo and Samsung Earthmoving.
Today he operates his consultancy,
The Press Agency, from Alicante in Spain.
www.plantonline.co.za