Crane manufacturer Condra Cranes has received an order to manufacture a second overhead crane for Tongaat Hulett’s Maidstone sugar mill, in KwaZulu-Natal.

The 23-m-span doublegirder electric overhead travelling crane, with 25 t main hoist and 8 t auxiliary, will work in conjunction with an existing mill house crane and the 10 t Condra crane commissioned in the bagasse store in March 2024.

In the bagasse store, the 10 t crane is used to move and position conveyors feeding fibrous raw residue (bagasse) into Maidstone’s secondary processing system.

The new 25/8 t crane will help operate and maintain the mill house, with delivery scheduled for April this year, and installation and commissioning to be undertaken by authorised agent Natal Cranes & Hoists.

Modular products that facilitate the manufacture of a customised lifting solution enabled Condra Cranes to meet Tongaat Hulett’s technical requirements for Maidstone’s new crane.

“Such modular design comes very close to the theoretical ideal: all elements of the crane – hoist, crab, end-carriages, drives and controls – are themselves assembled from a wide array of component parts. Only the crane girders are manufactured from scratch,” Condra Cranes said in a statement.

Condra Cranes precisely tailored its design to match the specification, paying particular attention to combinations of rope, drum and pulley to achieve the necessary hoist reeving arrangements for accurate load positioning over the considerable lifting heights of 12 m on the main hoist, and 12.2 m on the auxiliary hoist.

The new crane boasts an air-conditioned control cabin with a docking station for the remote control, instead of the more usual hard-wired control panel, which will allow the operator to use the same control unit for remote operation from the floor, overlooking office or docked within the cabin as an integral part of the cabin’s dashboard.

There will be digital read-outs from hoist loadcells, while an independent pendant control will provide backup and additional flexibility.

An ultrasonic anticollision system will reliably prevent accidental contact with the existing mill house crane that will remain in the bay.

Other features include frequency drives on the long travel, cross travels and hoists, full-length walkways with fiberglass grating on both sides of the crane, IP65 brakes, IP65 panels, stainless-steel fasteners, floodlights, safety lights and siren, full seam welds with rounded edges, lifting lugs and a special paint finish.

Besides the installed 10 t crane and 25/8 t crane on order, Condra Cranes has previously delivered a monorail hoist and crawl to Tongaat Hulett’s Zimbabwe mill.