New Approaches Drive Innovation and Change Across Industries
Spotlight Safety By Seth Skydel
Mastering Multi-Crane Safety
New Approaches Drive Innovation and Change Across Industries
Finnco Services puts safety first, especially on multi- crane jobs including some with more than 70 machines operating at the same time.
We assemble and operate tower cranes on a lot of multi-crane jobs, some with more than 70 machines operating at the same time,” Matt Finnerty, owner of Finnco Services, a provider of tower crane services, said.“ It takes a trained and certified team to keep the project running smoothly and the site safe at all times.”
Whether working on a high-rise building, a bridge or any other project involving multiple cranes, managing and controlling picks safely is one of the biggest challenges that Finnco has to address.“ On those types of jobsites there can be 15 or 20 picks taking place at any one time,” Finnerty related.“ Crane operator and rigger training and communication are key. There is also the need to have complete lift plans in place.”
Technology also plays a role in ensuring safety, Finnerty noted.“ We use the latest anti-collision systems to manage several cranes at once on a single jobsite,” he said.“ One of the most popular is from AMCS technologies.”
The anti-collision function in the AMCS system, Finnerty explained, registers the position of tower cranes and automatically creates interference zones so mobile cranes can be repositioned safely. The information provided to users includes precise coordinates and angles of the mobile cranes’ jib position.
The AMCS system calculates in real time and in 3D distances between each element of the cranes( including the position of the cabin), as well as movement speeds. It also interacts with the tower crane controls to ensure slowing down, followed by complete immobilization at a pre-set distance from the mobile crane.
Features of the AMCS system include sensors, a CANopen safety communication system, a graphical representation of the environment, as well as an alarm that alerts operators about any approaching danger.
Employee Stability
Across the industry, Finnerty pointed out, a challenge for everyone is finding competent individuals.“ Our average employee is with Finnco for
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