International Tower Cranes 2013 attracted more than 140 attendees from 19 countries with its thought-provoking programme of high level speakers.

 

Around 140 delegates from around the world attended the International Tower Cranes 2013 event dedicated purely to all things tower crane. It was the third ITC, a one-day conference and networking event, held for the second year at the Kempinski Hotel Bristol in Berlin, Germany.

 

The 5 November conference opened with a global economic overview presented by Chris Sleight, editor of IC sister publication International Construction. Sleight discussed construction market conditions around the world, forecasts for the construction industry and trends in international work and regional hot spots.

 

Nicola Castenetto, director customer care, Terex Tower Cranes, in Italy, and Peter Jehle, CEO at P&J Arcomet in the USA, delivered a presentation on The perfect jobsite and how manufacturers and contractors jointly manage modern day challenges. It included a case study example of a project for which a large luffing jib tower crane was specially developed.

 

Following that was a presentation from Thomas Stegmaier, product manager at radio remote control manufacturer HBC-radiomatic. Stegmaier discussed the increasing use of radio remote control in tower cranes, including general safety aspects. He explained the latest frequency management systems and outlined other technical developments and possibilities.

 

Other sessions at the conference included a comprehensive presentation on quality control from USA-based Peter Juhren, Morrow Equipment national service manager, and a detailed talk on ways to improve the customer experience in the tower crane supply chain, presented by Duncan Salt, HTC Plant director and general manager.

 

Moving on

The afternoon’s programme included a joint presentation from Dominique Tasch, managing director, and Thorsten Hesselbein, head of tower crane solutions, at tower crane manufacturer Liebherr-Werk Biberach in Germany. An interesting example of tower cranes in a modular bridge construction application was presented by Huang Qun. Qun is senior engineer and general manager at the Zoomlion Hoisting Machinery Branch Company (ZHMB) subsidiary of Zoomlion Group in China, Qun.

 

Another topic discussed was the importance of proper wire rope selection, an especially important issue when considering the huge lift height and high speed requirement of tower cranes on high rise construction projects. It was delivered by Dr Oliver Fries, WireCo Group Europe vice president global R&D, innovation and technology.

The topic of financing of tower cranes was presented by Dr Peter Schiefer, Wolffkran owner and CEO, president of the CECE tower crane committee and a former banker. This difficult subject generated lengthy discussion and participation from the audience.

 

An interesting presentation from Rémi Deporte, a global product director at Manitowoc cranes, covered collision avoidance systems and other high technology developments. Concluding the conference was Nabil Al Zahlawi, NFT managing partner, with an enlightening insight into the sheer scale of crane rental and distribution operations in the Middle East. The final Q&A session was followed by closing remarks from Alex Dahm, conference chairman, and then a well-attended evening reception.

 

 

TOTAL NUMBER OF DELEGATES: 142

 

NUMBER OF COMPANIES PRESENT: 48

 

NUMBER OF COUNTRIES REPRESENTED: 12