Manitowoc launches new tower cranes at bauma China 2014

This year’s bauma China 2014 in Shanghai saw Manitowoc introduce two new topless tower cranes from its Potain brand. The new models are the latest innovations from the company’s Zhangjiagang plant in China, which earlier this year celebrated the delivery of its 5,000^th crane since production began in 2006.

Potain MCT 205

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The MCT 205 on the Manitowoc booth has a 10 t maximum capacity and can lift 1.75 t at its maximum jib end of 65 m.

Leong Kwong-Joon, regional product manager for tower cranes at Manitowoc Cranes, explained that growing time pressures on job sites meant the introduction of the MCT 205 (and the smaller MCT 85) were timely for visitors to bauma China 2014.

“In China and across the rest of Asia, we’re seeing contractors wanting to place more tower cranes on job sites to accelerate construction schedules,” he says. “Because topless cranes have no cathead at the top, it’s easier to overlap them and overall crane working heights don’t need to be so high. Topless cranes are also faster and easier to erect. As a result, we experienced strong levels of interest in the new MCT 205 and MCT 85 cranes at bauma China.”

With a focus on fast erection, the complete upperworks for the MCT 205 can be assembled in four lifts. The heaviest group of components is just 7.9 t and the full 65 m jib can be placed in a single lift. Attention has been paid to transportation too, with three jib sections able to fit inside a standard container.

Potain MCT 85

The second new topless crane from Potain, the MCT 85, is smaller than the MCT 205, with a 5 t maximum capacity and an ability to lift 1.1 t at its jib end of 52 m. This practical unit is surprisingly easy to transport, with the entire top portion of the crane able to travel on just two trucks.

Again, on-site assembly is simplified thanks to the pre-assembly work done at the Zhangjiagang factory before the crane is delivered to the customer. For example, the counterjib and towerhead are fitted together as a single component and can be lifted as such. Connecting the jib, is facilitated through the use of quick and easy pin-connectors. This means the entire tower crane’s upperworks is connected in just two sections.

Like the MCT 205, the MCT 85 can be operated as an internal climbing crane, sitting inside the building it is constructing. Mounted on its 1.2 m mast sections, the crane offers a maximum free-standing height of 33.2 m when operating internally.

In addition to showing the two new Potain tower cranes, Manitowoc also showed a range of other products on its booth including a frequency-controlled LVF hoist for Potain tower cranes and the KZ100 synthetic rope, which is currently available on selected Grove mobile cranes.