The XCG300 recorded significant usage before being inspected by Ronco Construction, Equipment and Engineering.
In what is a routine request for WA-based Ronco Construction, Equipment and Engineering, the company was recently approached to disassemble a few cranes, transport them down to its Maddington facility and store them for asset management services company Karridale Group.
The cranes were delivered by XCMG three and a half years ago into the harsh environment at Citic Pacific’s Sino Iron project in the Pilbara region WA.
The environment in this area is one of extremes, with machines working in high temperatures, high humidity and close to the Indian Ocean.
Upon stripping the cranes and recording all the data and service history the team at Ronco noticed that one of the XGC300-I crawler cranes – fleet number KGPL017 – had performed approximately 13,500 hours of running time.
It is a known fact that many cranes clock up hours on the air conditioning system. Ronco compared KGPL017 against its sister XCMG XGC300-I crane – fleet number KGPL016 – that was also on site, which only had 2,769 hours on the hour meter.
Ronco’s Mark Turner contacted Karridale Operations Manager Simon Cox; responsible for the operation, care and maintenance of the machines, and asked the million-dollar question. “Why would there be such a large discrepancy between machines?”
The answer from Cox was that fleet number KGPL017 had been assigned to continuous crusher maintenance for the plant.
This involved round the clock work lifting large crusher heads out and back into place. It involved a great deal of tracking and many other duties. But the main duties were the heavy lifts of the crushers by Karridale Group. Discussions were entered into with Karridale Group, XCMG and Ronco Group. Ronco sought advice from their consulting engineer, Beyond3D’s Greg Mitchell, on behalf of the customer, to complete an assessment as to whether the crane needed a Major Inspection (MI) or not.
Very quickly, Karridale Group was able to present lift studies from day one, maintenance records and a very short list of unscheduled stoppages over the working life of KGPL017, due to their impeccable record keeping.
It was agreed by all that despite the short working life of the crane it had worked incredibly hard. It was concluded that in case of any incident in the future, it would be prudent to complete a full Major Inspection.
The XCMG factory supplied a scope of works and Mark Turner of Ronco quoted up the MI. The scope was agreed and the work commenced.
The slew break house on the XCMG crane.
The crane components were stripped and measured against OEM specifications. They were found to have sustained very little wear, given the crane’s extensive utilisation records and the extreme conditions under which it had performed.
The crane has the usual three winches, all of which had no signs of wear or fatigue. The same was true of the slew motors.
The slew ring was checked in multiple positions and the dial tension indicator (DTI) read that there was minimal wear from the OEM specifications.
The tracks had some wear from the harsh baked ground of the Pilbara, but nothing that would not last another 10,000 hours.
The boom section’s paint had lost its shine from being in such a harsh environment but had remained steadfast in protecting the steel that lay below.
As such, MJ Engineering of Perth was able to use Eddy Current on each section. This reduced the overall MI cost and the need to remove the protective coating.
The small list of repairs required to meet the engineer’s scope, and the requirement of the final inspection was minimal. All parts were available on the ground in Australia at one of XCMG’s parts warehouses located at Hallam in Victoria, Welshpool and Karratha WA.
Upon completing the works, Training and Inspection Services was brought in to complete the final part – the CraneSafe inspection.
The final report was drafted and signed off by a chartered professional engineer for a further 10,000hrs or 10 years working.
The slew break house on the XCMG crane.
That is, with the conditions that the crane is annually inspected by a competent person; is maintained in line with the XCMG guidelines supplied with the crane; and as always, operated as per the OEM operator’s manual.
The whole MI – including load in, assembly and testing – was less than 5% of the price of a new XGC300-I crawler crane.
Bill Wang, the owner of Karridale Group, insists that the gamble he took buying XCMG has made his company stronger, and his investment has given him a great return over those three and a half years – without the need to invest in a crane with a bigger name or better known brand.
Today the three XCMG crawlers – 2 x 300t and 1 x 180t – are assembled at Ronco’s facility and are available for dry hire through Empire Equipment Hire.
The staff at Ronco is happy for anyone who is considering their next purchase to make an appointment. Come down, have a look and operate with a test weight.
