Hercules Cranes is based at Leonora (WA) and primarily serves the mining industry in the goldfields area of Western Australia.
Its well presented dark green all terrain cranes are seen on many mine sites, and the company has made a specialty of assembling and disassembling large hydraulic mining shovels using multi-crane lifts.
The Hercules fleet consists of one 70t Krupp and two 80t Demag all terrain cranes, a 45t Kato truck crane and an 18t and 20t Franna. The all terrain cranes have proven themselves travelling over all manner of unsealed roads and desert tracks in the mining districts, and as operations manager Greg Roberts says “this is probably the only true all terrain operation in the world”. The suspension of an all terrain crane proves itself on these rough roads with regular washouts, and the comparison of ride between the all terrains and the Kato is chalk and cheese.
Four cranes are required to safely and evenly lift the upper (around 115t) of a Hitachi EX3500 mining shovel, which has to be accurately and gently placed so that the slew ring is not damaged. Currently Hercules uses its three all terrain cranes as well as a hired crane, but Greg is looking at increasing the fleet to do all this work in house.
The boom reassembly is an awkward rather than a heavy lift, and two cranes are used for this not so much for the weight as for the control of the boom in accurately positioning it for pinning to the upper.
Lift planning is critical for positioning the cranes, picking up the upper and slewing to place it on the slew ring. However the crane crews, dealer fitters and transport drivers are now so accustomed to this work so that a disassembly or reassembly takes only 24-30 hours, and all involved act like a finely tuned pit crew. The four cranes are required only for lifting the upper, so the bulk of the work is done by the two Demags, with the other two cranes appearing only when required.
Recently Hercules lifted the 200t upper of a Liebherr 996 hydraulic excavator using the two Demags and a hired Manitowoc 4100 crawler crane. The upper was lifted 4m off ground while a dozer pushed the tracks into position underneath it.
Innovation in multi-crane lifts and careful planning has Hercules Cranes performing lifts that would normally done by much larger crawler cranes working alone - something would mean higher costs and longer lead times for the client.
In all these lifts the cranes operate at a close radius at close to their rated capacity (after taking account of the 30 percent derating required for a multiple crane lift) - another factor that Greg believes distinguishes the working lives of his cranes compared to most all terrain cranes that work with lighter loads at a longer radius.
Hercules has a strict maintenance program for its cranes - a result of the demanding conditions they work in and Greg’s belief that there should be absolutely no breakdowns on the job. The company employs a highly skilled fitter and has had excellent support from Demag, Franna and Grove (Krupp) when required. However Greg believes that the cranes need to be traded at 6-7 years to ensure that the high standards of fleet reliability are maintained.