The PALFINGER Mounting Competence Centre (MCC), known for crane projects in the high-end performance range, is now demonstrating its strengths with small vehicles as well. The experts from Lengau, Austria, present their latest development – an assembly kit that can be used to install compact cranes on lightweight 3.5-tonne transporters much more easily and cost-effectively.
Until now, comparatively high assembly and installation costs in relation to the vehicle purchase price have represented a market hurdle for these compact all-rounders on the loading platform.
The head of MCC Gernot Pichorner and his experts worked together with their sales colleagues to survey dealers and customers in depth. Their aim was to clarify the requirements profile for lightweight loader cranes in this Europe-wide vehicle class. Based on this, the PALFINGER developers created an extremely assembly-friendly kit that can be configured for the standard models of leading suppliers in this segment.
“WITH THE NEW COMPACT CRANE ASSEMBLY KIT, WE OFFER A “PLUGAND- USE” ASSEMBLY SOLUTION THAT GUARANTEES ALL-ROUND PALFINGER QUALITY AT REASONABLE COSTS. GERNOT PICHORNER, HEAD OF ASSEMBLY AND INFRASTRUCTURE, PALFINGER PLANT IN LENGAU”
Gernot Pichorner, head of assembly and infrastructure, Palfinger plant in Lengau
The design of the PALFINGER PC crane does not feature an additional auxiliary frame to reduce the payload or additional welding or drilling work on the chassis. Only the longitudinal profile of the platform substructure and the screen-printed wear floor of the platform is cut out for crane assembly. The new crane kit does not need any further interventions on the chassis or the ladder Frame. The 120-millimetre high, extremely compact cross-rail for the stabiliser support system is assembled separately from the crane and is fixed to the chassis using screw and clamp connections like a hydraulic crane. “This design means that the crane can be assembled, retrofitted or transferred to a new chassis without any problems,” states Gernot Pichorner, explaining the innovative assembly concept that yields benefits for a wide range of customers. The lightweight KTL dip-painted PALFINGER crane is much easier to assemble and can be constructed in appropriately qualified workshops. The new PALFINGER crane kit entails only around a third of the time required to assemble other types of crane, which translates into a significant cost advantage.
Three power classes, ranging from the lightweight PALFINGER PC 1500 with 1.4 metre tonnes and a lifting capacity of up to 990 kilograms and the PC 2700 to the PC 3800 with 3.7 metre tonnes and a maximum lifting capacity of 2.000 kilograms cover the wide-ranging fields of application on the transporter platform. An electrohydraulic pump assembly or a hydraulic pump driven by the engine V-belt with a magnetic clutch is used to drive the fully hydraulic compact crane. With the new compact crane assembly kit, PALFINGER has enabled operators of lightweight commercial vehicles to benefit from the usual PALFINGER quality, even with all their sensitivity to costs.
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