Explaining why tower cranes are becoming increasingly important in precast building constructions 

If we look at all the major cities at a glance, India is a one country that is coming up with huge volume of low cost economic apartments through precast buildings. Explaining the advantages of precast constructions, PV Ramdev, Managing Director, Everest Engineering Equipment Pvt Ltd said, “The precast buildings are very economical, safe, long lasting and very fast in completion. Most of the government projects will be in precast type and there is a tendency from the private sector also to move towards precast buildings.”

In China, thousands of precast buildings starting from 20-floor to 100-floor of height are being constructed by developers. The same system will be coming up in India very soon and we are fully prepared to support the precast building sector, expresses Ramdev.

Today, precast building constructions are being done with highly mechanised technology which enables completion of a 10-12 storey building in all respect within 5-6 months of time. In precast construction tower cranes are playing a vital role to handle the precast segments in the yard and during the erection of these segments in the building.Safety, selection, placement and reliability of tower cranes are very important in timely completion of precast buildings. Speaking about the vital requirements and safety measures Ramdev says, “The speed, wind control and accuracy of placements are the essential requirements in precast buildings along with all standard safety features of tower cranes. The wind acting on the tower cranes as well as the big precast segments need to be strictly controlled for proper placement. A small collision may lead to fatal accidents or may damage the segments leading to heavy losses and delay in project.”

Everest Engineering has supplied 86 flat top tower cranes of 6-tonne capacity with rail travel arrangement to BG Shirke Construction Technology Pvt Ltd for their DDA project Delhi in 2014, 2015 and 2016. The cranes were used to construct about 900 precast buildings ranging from 4-floor to 13-floor height. The company has also supplied such tower cranes to BG Shirke for MHADA’s Mumbai projects, 3 different projects in Pune, 1 project in Chennai and 2 projects in Bangalore. “Since, our customised tower cranes are proven to be economic, safe and reliable, BG Shirke has again ordered 32 flat top tower cranes of 12-tonne capacity this year for their new DDA project in Delhi as well as 3 different projects at MHADA Pune ranging from 18-floor to 24-floor height,” Ramdev further adds.

Everest Engineering is supplying these tower cranes with inbuilt safe load indicators (SLI) and anti-collision systems to assure superior performance with adequate safety.

Sharing his views on precast construction Krishna Kumar, Divisional Head Tower cranes, Liebherr India Pvt Ltd states, “Precast construction having advantage like less expensive than real brick construction, more durable, fast and easy way of executing project, less maintenance etc.” However, he believes, that utmost  importance to be given while selecting equipment for such projects with a proper planning, especially  handling the precast panels is crucial  and to be taken care, placing it without damage, how fast the panels  are able  to position etc. “Customers worldwide appreciate Liebherr tower cranes for precast projects because of the higher load handling performance,” he assures.

Prime features Liebherr tower cranes are:

•  Liebherr cranes with Pure two fall rope hoisting of loads make fast and safe operation, feature of ‘fine positioning mode’ of loads without applying brake by pressing a button at control lever thus the operator feels very confident while positioning and very fast, as no damage happens to the pre cast panels while positioning, automatic load swing damping, jolt free-jerk free slewing and integrated wind load control and many more features make it suitable for such construction jobs.
• PLC control-monitors controls, coordinates the entire crane’s important functions also 20 per cent extra load on press of button, automatic load adaption, minimum start up current-low power consumption etc.
• Essential safety function like the motor moment only switched off when the brake has taken over load, high lowering and empty hook speeds.

According to Krishna, these are key features which make the precast construction with Liebherr tower cranes very economical, safe and fast way of executing projects.