Crane care wings in for Airbus contract

Citation

(2002), "Crane care wings in for Airbus contract", Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 74 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/aeat.2002.12774dab.036

Crane care wings in for Airbus contract

Keywords: Airbus, Cranes, Contract, Crane Care

Birmingham crane and hoist experts. Crane Care, reports that it has secured a five figure contract to supply Chester based Airbus with new Spectrum 716 remote control systems on 64 of their underslung cranes.

Airbus builds the wings for all its aeroplanes at the Broughton site, with Crane Care now installing the radio control systems to help facilitate the assembly of the wings for the A34600.

A total of 64 cranes are to be installed, with eight jigs each housing eight cranes; four masters and four slaves.

Overseeing the application, is Crane Care's radio installation expert, Mark Holyhead, who comments: "The cranes were originally fitted with C-Matic infra-red controls, which meant that the receivers needed to be right in line with the transmitters when any work was being carried out.

"While these systems are not being removed, they are now around ten years old and a lot of time and money has gone on repairing them in the past. The new radio controlled systems will take away the hassle and expense of frequent repairs and with a two year warranty and three year warranty on electrical parts, future servicing costs will be kept to a minimum."

Mark continues: "The Spectrum 716 radio control systems have a range of 200 metres, allowing anyone controlling the cranes to stand further away, which means that safety risks are kept to an absolute minimum. The benefits in terms of saved downtime and ease of maintenance will be noticed straight away."