Manitowoc Crane Group leads the lifting industry at CONEXPO Asia

Manitowoc Crane Group will show a variety of lifting equipment at the first ever CONEXPO Asia show. MCG will have its largest ever presence at a trade show in China and will join a host of regional and international companies at the event taking place May 15-18, 2006 at the China National Agricultural Exhibition Center in Beijing.

MCG will display products from its three major manufacturing lines on its 1000 m2 (10,764 ft2) booth on Stand A1. These include a 250 t (275 USt) Manitowoc Model 999 crawler crane, a 450 t (550 USt) Grove mobile all-terrain - the GMK7450 (GMK7550 in the US), and a Potain MC 480 tower crane. The cranes chosen for MCG’s stand demonstrate the diversity, versatility and engineering excellence of the company’s product offerings.

Eric Etchart, executive vice-president for MCG Asia-Pacific, outlined the reasons behind the company’s significant presence at the show.

“We feel it is important to reinforce our market-leading position in the Asian market at this CONEXPO event,” he said. “In the past 12 months we have added significant resources including a new factory at Zhangjiagang in China and a new regional headquarters in Singapore. So we want to use this exhibition to update our customers on the latest developments at MCG and outline our vision for future growth.”

"The seven-axle GMK7450 all-terrain crane is the largest Grove model and features a five-section boom of 60 m (197 ft) incorporating MEGAFORM shaping and the TWIN-LOCK pinning system. It also includes a six-cylinder Mercedes-Benz OM906LA, 190 kW (258 hp) superstructure engine, MEGATRAK suspension and 120 t (132 USt) of counterweight. The Manitowoc Model 999, meanwhile, can be configured with either Heavy-Lift or Long-Reach boom, with fixed and luffing jib attachments able to provide up to 146 m of (480 ft) of reach.

The MC 480 from Potain (known as the MC 475 in markets outside China) is manufactured locally at the company’s factory in Zhangjiagang. It is available in two versions, a 20 t (22 USt) maximum capacity version and a 25 t (27.6 USt) version. Each can accommodate up to 80 m (262 ft) of jib with the 20 t version able to lift 3.1 t (3.4 USt) at its jib end and the 25 t version able to lift 3 t (3.3 USt) at its jib end.

In addition to the cranes, MCG will showcase its Manitowoc Crane CARE mobile training unit. Housed inside a 13 m (44 ft) container, the unit has a fully equipped training room supporting a variety of operating software, including; EPIC and Can-Bus systems for Manitowoc crawler cranes, PAT systems for Grove rough-terrain cranes, and EKS/ECOS software for Grove all-terrain cranes.