Automation and smart features are driving the overhead lifting sector in Sout...

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Automation and smart features are driving the overhead lifting sector in South East Asia. “2016 was an exciting year of innovation and exploration in industrial automation, though the trend toward automation and greater efficiency in the manufacturing and industrial sector is not new to us,” says Karl Tilkorn, regional managing director, MHE-Demag. “While our customers from various industries have started to automate their processes, advancement in precise positioning methodology as well as sensors, controls and software place us in the leadership position in engineering, manufacturing, installing and servicing both automatic and semiautomatic cranes.

“The demand for automation and process efficiency will increase and improve the overall demand for automatic or semi-automatic cranes in the region. “Another trend observed is the increasing demand for online monitoring of crane status. In the past, crane monitoring and preventive maintenance were manually planned and conducted with high dependency on human behaviour and input. Besides the costs of monitoring, it also results in unnecessary preventive maintenance or risks of downtimes.

“Recently MHE-Demag has introduced our Demag StatusControl, which is a wireless remote access system for cranes and hoists that delivers, analyses and evaluates data in real time. Customers can access the remote monitoring system directly via our intuitive software tool, which they can use in the same way on their PC or tablet. The traffic light system shows what needs to be done straight away. Demag StatusControl enables our customers to precisely schedule the maintenance work and they are always kept up to date on the risk of any possible downtime.

“Engineering innovation is another highly sought after criteria. One of the upcoming trends is delivering cranes with reduced size and deadweight for the same lifting capacity, allowing customers to reduce the costs of supporting structures and associated maintenance for dragging unnecessary dead loads around. In short, lighter and better. MHE-Demag is the only leader who is capable of supplying this cutting edge technology and it is delivered through our latest crane innovation, the V-type crane. Tapered diaphragm joints are specially designed to accommodate pressure and tensile forces and improve oscillation characteristics by up to 30%.

On average, the Demag V-type crane is 17% lighter than conventional box-section profile girders thanks to its revolutionary design. This reduces the forces transmitted to the existing support superstructure and gives architects greater freedom for planning new building layouts.”

Tilkorn says the company has been operating in the region for more than 40 years. “Our customer base is spread across various industries, served by eleven manufacturing facilities and over 60 sales & service offices within the region,” he adds. “As our core business is in overhead cranes and hoists, our main customers are primarily from industries that require raw materials or finished product lifting, such as the manufacturing and logistics sectors. MHE-Demag is also appointed for many major developments in various countries for industries such as steel handling, waste to energy plant, power plant and so on.”

MHE-Demag operates within a closeknit regional network and supplies to Australia, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Timor-Leste, Thailand and Vietnam. Over the years MHE-Demag has supplied 26,000 industrial cranes, 20,000 dock levellers, 2,000 building maintenance units and 180 car parking systems with more than 6,000 bays to the region.

“Located in over 60 locations with a dedicated workforce of more than 1,600 well-trained staff across the region including 700 responsive service engineers and technicians, an attentive back-office and intelligent IT infrastructure, we also have the biggest after sales service network in South East Asia. For instance, in Indonesia, we have just recently launched our 27th location in Bitung,” Tilkorn says. “We think that the South East Asia region will grow proportionally. MHE-Demag has ventured into emerging markets such Cambodia and Myanmar and we expect more activities in these areas in coming years.”

Investments

“Investments in oil and gas industry will remain low and as a result of this, the supply of new cranes to this sector will be affected,” Tilkorn says. “However, MHEDemag is effectively able to continue to support the oil and gas industry in their difficult times, by refurbishing existing equipment at significantly reduced costs, whilst returning the equipment to as good, or even sometimes better, condition than when handed to us. This is owing to the extent of the engineering capacity within MHE-Demag. Energy generation and conservation are an unstoppable trend and therefore we foresee more investment will be put into the waste-to-energy sector.

Mak says. “Customers are increasingly aware of the benefits of Smart Features and it is quite common to find such requirements in their specifications.”

Abhijeet Das, marketing and communications manager at Konecranes India adds: “In India and Bangladesh, where heavy process industry like steel, power, automobile have huge presence, the focus is more on safety and ease of maintenance. Tailor-made cranes provided for the steel industry include a redundant hoisting system to ensure the safety of the load, which is sometimes liquid metal and quite risky if it falls. Even if one of the gearboxes or input pinion fails, the load will not fall and you can still complete the operation at 50% speed.

“In these cranes, we also provide an antifreefall system which does not allow the load to fall in case of failure of either shaft or coupling of motor and gearbox.”

The product range comprises lifting solutions for process industries, industrial cranes, and workstation lifting systems, including components such as wire rope hoists and electric chain hoists. The Konecranes range of CXT wire rope hoist cranes can be suitable in nearly any industry where lifting capacity of up to 80t is required.

Automation and smart features are driving the overhead lifting sector in South East Asia