Smurfit Kappa UK ltd has placed an order for four cranes with East Kilbride manufacturer Konecranes UK industrial crane division. They are for their paper mill extension at the Snodland, Kent site.

The order is for two 50 tonne SMTD type cranes to operate on a 23.6mt span at the dry and wet end of production. The SMT stands for SMT SMARTON®, which is an intelligent, yet easy-to-use Human Interface to Machine (HIM) system keeping the user continuously up to date on not only the weight of the load but also its position relative to the available workspace. In addition, the crane monitors its own condition and recommends when and what kind of inspection or preventive maintenance should be performed. This way, the customer can better plan and minimize maintenance shutdowns, thereby maximizing uptime and saving costs. All cranes will also have Konecranes TRUCONNECT Remote Monitoring and Reporting service where the cranes performance is being continuously monitored remotely and should anything arise then a Konecranes engineer can automatically be despatched to site, without any request or call from the client. Touch screens for diagnostics are also included.

The dry end crane has 2 x 30t trolleys and the wet end crane has 3 hoists at 30/30/15t capacities all with load summation. They will also have Konecranes DynAHoist and DynAC closed loop inverter variable speed control systems, Remox (HIM) radio control with a spare transmitter, back up pendant, anti-collision on the cranes and on the trolleys and true vertical lift with anti-sway features to ensure load stability.

Then there are 2 CXT cranes, 1 at 10t which is a CXTD double girder crane at 17.42m span, a CXTS Singe girder crane at 6.8m span and a 10t CXT monorail hoist. All CXT units have 2 speed hoists, DynA variable speed travel and traverse drives. Long and cross travel limit switches also feature as does ControlPro condition monitoring, hoist and lower limit switches, festoon cross crane cables and travel conductors.

The cranes will be delivered in September 2013.