Presenting a world first, also available to the SA market through Babcock, Tadano is introducing a new ATF 600G-8 ‘serious’ generation of large cranes.
The ATF 600G-8 is an all-terrain eight-axle crane which unites a revolutionary world-first with proven technologies that benefit crane owners economically. Featuring Tadano’s newly developed triple-boom system, the ATF 600G-8 does not require a separate boom suspension system.
Unlike conventional single telescopic booms, the innovative triple-boom system consists of three telescopes, giving the whole system an especially high degree of flexural and torsional rigidity at all times. The triple-boom system is based on the principle that the further away the materials of a load-bearing structure are from the centre of that structure’s cross-section, the more stable the overall system will be.
The mass of the total amount of available steel is no longer distributed in just one main boom but instead between another two telescopes connected together by ‘partitions’.
These tubes are further away from the centre of the system’s cross-section, which makes the overall system far more stable than a conventional single telescopic boom system.
The different telescopes in the new triple-boom system are extended and retracted using the Tadano one-cylinder system. The way the telescopes are bolted together is, in principle, the same
as in other Tadano models, except that all three tubes in the new triple-boom system are bolted together one after the other, independently, ensuring that the system is even more stable than it would be if bolted simultaneously.
The triple-boom system’s high flexural and torsional stiffness naturally benefits the lifting capacity profile of the new eight-axle crane. It has the huge advantage of providing much easier access to its lifting capacity because it has its boom suspension with it all the time. For crane operators, the elimination of boom suspension signifies the elimination of the time and expense of
transporting, rigging, and operating boom suspension. Furthermore, the new eight-axle crane has a much smaller tail swing radius than comparable large cranes with suspended telescopic booms, making it more versatile on construction sites with limited space.
As well as its unique new triple-boom system, the ATF 600G-8 has many other features that make it even more economical. Because space is often limited on construction sites and the crane cannot always be supported in its full breadth, crane operators can utilise asymmetric outrigger base control for the ATF 600G-8. This allows them to avoid unnecessary lifting capacity losses caused by a limited outrigger base. It uses length sensors to automatically determine the length of all four outriggers, and records the position of the superstructure on the basis of the angle of rotation.
These two figures are sent to the crane control system, which then indicates the maximum permissible load for each individual sector of the four outriggers. It divides up the entire 360-degree lifting area into four sectors, each of which can be maximised depending on the outrigger length.
The new ATF 600G-8 all-terrain crane is the result of intensive development work in which the prime focus was on the requirements and needs of crane owners and how to simplify logistics, reduce job times and perform more jobs on narrow construction sites.
“This new boom system is not only revolutionary in design but in thinking as well,” says Craig Sanday, Babcock’s General Manager of Equipment, Tadano Cranes & Used Equipment.
“Babcock is proud to be associated with Tadano, a company that is willing to shift the normal and continuously develop new technologies into their already proven products.”