Spierings lifts to the max with Strenx® performance steel

The Dutch company Spierings Mobile Cranes likes to do things to the max. This is especially true when it comes to designing and manufacturing unique mobile cranes that outperform the competition. Their longtime partnership with SSAB and Strenx^® performance steel is one critical element that has helped the company succeed in making a name for themselves – and bringing an entirely new concept for mobile cranes onto the market.

Customers of crane manufactures are always demanding more. Higher payloads, longer reach, better efficiency – and more maneuverability. Spierings Mobile Cranes, based in Oss, in the Netherlands, knows that staying at the forefront of the industry, requires finding solutions that meet these challenges – and turning them into opportunities.

Their approach is to make cranes lighter and stronger, to add more counterweight and thus, improve lifting capacity. Doing this, however, is easier said than done – and requires a combination of the right design and the right steel.

As a company, Spierings has been around since the early 80s and changed the entire lifting industry by putting tower cranes on wheels. Today, they manufacture mobile tower cranes with both 6 and 4 axels as well as crawler cranes that use a track instead of wheels.

Recently, Spierings developed an entirely new crane concept for customers who need a highly maneuverable tower crane for use in cities and more congested areas, but with excellent lifting and reach capacity. They call it the City Boy and, to meet the demands, they employed Strenx^® performance steel from SSAB, a material that Spierings is very familiar with.

“We turned to advanced high strength steel from SSAB,” explains Vince Bruinsma, Buyer at Spierings Mobile Cranes. “We have used steel from SSAB for many years in our cranes and Strenx^® has been vital for us to be able to attain the unique characteristics that our products can offer customers.”

Spierings employed Strenx^® Tube 700MLH for the boom application of the City Boy as well as sheet material made from Strenx^® 700MC for applications in the mouth area of the crane.

“The high strength as well as high quality and consistency of the material is really the basis for our choice of Strenx^® performance steel from SSAB, in the City Boy as well as all of our other mobile cranes,” explains Mr. Bruinsma. “It results in the best quality products. Our cranes can be made lighter for the addition of more counterweight and therefore can go higher while lifting more.”

The City Boy is the most compact crane in the Spierings product range. The compact design with a width of just 2.50 meters and a total length of just 13.08 meters means that the truck is easy to maneuver. This crane comes into its own in urban environments, with a truck footprint of less than 10 meters.

“The maximum load of the City Boy is 7000kg and the mobile tower has a 40-meter radius as well as a 30-meter tower height. The crane can be fully assembled in only minutes, and it only takes one person to drive, set up the crane and operate it. No extra ballast or jib parts are needed.”

The City Boy is also the very first mobile crane that can be powered by electricity alone. It can drive 20 km fully electric and the crane operation is also fully electric. Keeping weight to a minimum through the optimized use of Strenx^® performance steel was key to achieving this.

“Just as we are continuously calculating the best type of steel to use when trying to improve upon our cranes, SSAB is continuously thinking about how they can improve lifting products through new grades of steel, and they are there to assist us when needed,“ says Mr. Bruinsma.

Spierings manufactures around 100 units every year and keeps everything in-house, from engineering to manufacturing as well as from operator training to service and overhaul.

“At Spierings, we live and breathe mobile tower cranes, and do everything to lift to the max. How do we do this? By constantly working on improving and finding better ways of making the cranes lighter and stronger,” says Mr. Bruinsma. “Our relationship with Strenx^® as a material, and SSAB as a partner, makes it possible.”

“The maximum load of the City Boy is 7000kg and the mobile tower has a 40-meter radius as well as a 30-meter tower height. The crane can be fully assembled in only minutes, and it only takes one person to drive, set up the crane and operate it. No extra ballast or jib parts are needed.” says Vince Bruinsma, Buyer at Spierings Mobile Cranes.

Spierings employed Strenx^® Tube 700MLH for the boom application of the City Boy as well as sheet material made from Strenx^® 700MC for applications in the mouth area of the crane.