INDUSTRIAL job sites in Italy are deploying Grove’s new RT550E rough-terrain crane to carry out general construction and maintenance work. Three units of the 45-tonne capacity crane, which features a class-leading 39 m boom, are working at different locations: A bio-chemical plant, a refinery and an electrical power company’s facility.
The Grove RT550E features Manitowoc’s new Crane Control System, and the crane is said to be fast to set up and easy to use. Federico Lovera, EMEA product manager at Manitowoc, explains: “Industrial job sites need cranes that can handle a variety of work and do jobs quickly,” he says. “Our RT550E is designed to make life easier for the operator. The Crane Control System automatically configures boom length to suit specific loads and radius so operators can perform more lifts in a shorter time.”
One of the RT550Es in Italy was bought by O.MEC. srl, one of the largest crane rental companies in the country, which operates a fleet of more than 20 Grove RT540E and RT880E rough-terrain cranes. The company used its latest addition at an oil refinery in Falconara, on the east coast of Italy, where it helped to dismantle old equipment no longer in use. The RT550E, along with several other Grove rough-terrain cranes, is now heading to Algeria to help build a new railway.
Another RT550E in Italy, owned by I.COM srl, is working at the Eni-Polimeri Europa bio-chemical complex in Porto Torres, Sardinia, off the west coast of the country. The crane is moving materials and is helping assemble and install large steel frames at the construction project where a 300-tonne capacity Grove GMK6300L all-terrain crane is also at work.
The third RT550E is owned by CEIE Power, an electrical infrastructure construction company based in Guardiagrele, central Italy, which is using it to install power lines. The crane is said to be ideally suited to the work because of its long boom and high capacity, particularly in tight spaces.
The Grove RT550E is designed to give maximum capacity in an innovative yet easy-to-use package with an 8 m fixed swingaway jib attachment available to extend the crane’s total reach to 47 m.
At less than 12 m long, 2.55 m wide and weighing under 29 tonnes, the RT550E is a compact crane that fits well within most national European road regulations for heavy machinery.
