The new Smarton process crane from Konecranes provides smart safety and maintenance features that up until now have not been available as standard features in this crane size range. The Smarton crane records its usage data automatically, storing the runtimes, number of starts and cycles, average loads, machinery temperatures, and other important values on its graphical touch-screen service panel, which is located in the electric cubicle door on the crane bridge. The crane also computes estimates of its own condition, generating different safe working period values which the crane operator can check from the service panel. All alarms and indications of their locations are also displayed on the service panel.

Sophisticated lifetime calculation formulas have been defined for the most important components of the Smarton crane, such as the hoist, the hoist brake, the hoist wire rope and the trolley steel structures. By comparing these designed working periods with the cranes actual usage monitoring data, it is possible to analyze the condition of the crane, and to make recommendations on the timing of the necessary maintenance and inspection measures.

One of the new standard features of the Smarton is that the condition and usage monitoring data recorded by the crane is automatically transmitted to the Global Technical Support Team (GTS) via a remote connection. The condition monitoring data can also be stored on a USB flash memory drive and sent to the GTS Team by email, if necessary.

Automatic wizard functions, which assist the user in the crane's start up process, are a new and user-friendly features incorporated in Smarton's graphical user interface. With these wizards, the setting up of startup values on the service panel can be performed by the service man, without having to resort to the help of a programmable logic control (PLC) specialist. In case of a failure in crane's PLC after start-up, no data is lost, as all settings are stored in the service panel. Once a new PLC has been installed, the original values can be retrieved with the back- up and restore functions. Another useful new standard feature in Smarton is the possibility to also operate the crane via the service panel, should the normally used two radio transmitters fail.

(Contact: Mr Sandeep Jadhav, Asst. Manager - Marketing, Konecranes India Pvt Ltd, Pune. Mobile: 086001-07885, Email: sandeep.jadhav@konecranes.com)