Plant Equipment and Hire August 2019 | Page 26

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