Crane manufacturer Condra Cranes is edging towards realising its ambition of becoming Southern Africa’s leading overhead crane and hoist manufacturer as the group secures significantly large orders.

This follows continuing growth amid a carefully planned expansion of company capacity and capability, including automation, in crane design and manufacture.

Alongside this, there has also been steady expansion throughout Central and Southern Africa of the after-sales service network.

“Five-day factory work weeks sustained through the pandemic, an increasingly strong order book and the recent purchase of Cape Town’s BB Cranes all would indicate the possibility of Condra Cranes becoming Southern Africa’s leading crane manufacturer,” a Condra Cranes spokesperson said in a company statement.

The company, which acquired a majority shareholding in Cape Town-based lifting equipment manufacturer BB Cranes in 2016, bought the remaining shareholding in March, absorbing BB Cranes as a wholly owned Condra Cranes subsidiary, which enabled the start of increasing market share in the Western Cape through expanded manufacturing and refurbishing capabilities and improved productivity.

BB Cranes is also a long-standing customer of Condra Cranes’ hoists and end-carriages, which BB marries to crane girders fabricated at its own factory.

“Immediately after the acquisition was completed, a girder jig was installed at BB Cranes’ factory to enable quicker, more efficient manufacture of cambered girder box sections, reducing production time by some 75%,” the company says.

Meanwhile, Condra Cranes’ automated crane option, available since 2019, represents the culmination of 15 years’ experience in semiautomated installations.

“Using new developments in sensors, controls and software to precisely control load uplift and positioning in repetitive operations, automation increases productivity and reduces the risk of load damage in specific manufacturing and mining applications.”

The option is available across all three types of the company’s cranes, namely overhead (bridge) designs in single- and double-girder configuration, portal (gantry) cranes and jib (cantilever) cranes.

The company also manufactures an extensive line of hoists, mainly in the KSeries range and the SH (short headroom) series.

“There is additionally a variety of modular component subassemblies, such as crabs, end-carriages, bottom blocks and cable-loop systems, all fabricated to customer specification from some 200 modular parts produced in long production runs to achieve competitive prices through economies of scale,” Condra Cranes adds, noting that short lead times are achieved through large inventories.

End-carriages are configured with either standard-speed, dual-speed or variable-speed drives, using individual drive or idler bogies from 125 mm to 630 mm in diameter, while hoists are supplied with capacities of 250 t and above.

“Condra customises all component sub- assemblies to the customer’s precise requirements, allowing him to avoid the time consuming administration needed to transact and liaise with many different suppliers, and allowing a focus on the end-user’s application,” Condra Cranes concludes.