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Lane’s Crane Service of Moosic, Pennsylvania, received an interesting lifting challenge from beverage bottling company Joriki USA — erect four 37-foot tall, 19,000-pound tanks on the company’s plant floor under a 41-foot ceiling joist.
With the right crane — in this case a newly purchased Tadano AC 7.450-1 all-terrain supplied by distributor Empire Crane — the challenge was met.
“We chose this crane due to its long reach and ability to do the job with main boom only, as well as its efficiency when being assembled,” related Matthew Lane. “The fact that no luffing jib was required not only ensured lower transportation costs and fast assembly, but also reduced the space required for assembling the crane on the jobsite.”
At the bottling plant, the Tadano AC 7.450-1 all-terrain crane was used with its extended 262.5-foot main boom, coupled with the manufacturer’s sideways superlift system (SSL), to eliminate the need for a luffing jib. It took the crane operator and two crew members less than three hours to set up the machine with the main boom in SSL configuration and full counterweight.
At the bottling plant, the only access for the lifts was through the roof, so small rectangular openings exactly above the respective installation positions of the tanks were created and were made just large enough for the hook block to fit through. The Lane’s Crane Service team used a 35,000-pound forklift as a “tail crane” to stabilize the tanks during the lift at the other end, allowing them to safely install all four tanks in the shortest possible time.
Strength and Reach
The Tadano AC 7.450-1 is a compact seven-axle model. The all-terrain’s maximum lifting capacity is 500 tons. Its main boom can extend from 48.6- to 262.5-feet and it has a maximum tip height of 419 feet and a 321.5-foot maximum radius. Six cameras mounted on the AC 7.450-1 keep everything in view.
“Tadano put a lot of thought into the design of this machine, which is effectively a seven-axle crane that competes like an eight-axle but has the space envelope closer to a six-axle,” said Tadano America All-Terrain Product Manager Hutton Strader. “It has a lot of strength and reach in a relatively compact package.”
And for Lane’s Crane Service, the AC 7.450-1 turned out to be the right machine for the bottling plant job. “The AC 7.450-1 is definitely a dynamic crane, and it served us well for this unique job,” Lane said.
“We were very pleased with the performance of the crane on this project, especially considering this was only the second job for this machine, and the first using the sideways superlift system,” Lane added. “Everything went seamlessly, the customer was happy, and the operator and crew are looking forward to using this machine on future jobs.”
