In separate deals Cattron has provided portable remote control (PRC) systems to two heavy industrial manufacturers in the Irish Republic, Banagher Concrete and Thompson Butler Steel.
Banagher Concrete used to use pendant control to operate cranes which handle concrete skips, moulds and shutters, as well as finished precast beams weighing 50t and measuring 35m long.
However, Banagher found that the operator’s view was restricted and decided that PRC would allow the operator to choose the most appropriate place from which to operate machinery, where the view was the clearest.
A tandem operation facility on the PRC enables the operator to control all cranes either individually or simultaneously from a single controller – a necessary feature for Bannagher because two cranes are needed to lift each precast section.
Thompson Butler Steel also had problems with the pendant control on one of its cranes, which is in a confined space and so was both difficult to manage and difficult to watch the load.