Hoeflon C30e places glass on tight Tullamore site

Flynn Crane Hire glazes a constricted Tullamore site with a C30e and vacuum lifter

Flynn Crane Hire has used a Hoeflon C30e fitted with the Multitool, Multivac and S1000 vacuum lifter to install large glass panels on a construction site in Tullamore, Ireland, where space left little room to manoeuvre.

Large panes, small site

Glass installation is unforgiving work: the panels are heavy, awkward to grip and intolerant of a knock, and the crane usually has to reach past scaffolding or structure to place them. On this project in Tullamore, the constraint was the site itself. There was limited room to set the crane up, which meant the machine had to work at a position dictated by the site rather than by the lift.

Crane and attachment as one package

Flynn Crane Hire ran the C30e with a combination of Hoeflon’s Multitool, the Multivac and the S1000 vacuum lifter. The Multitool sits between the crane and the load and allows the panel to be tilted and rotated under power, so the pane can be turned from a transport orientation into its fitted orientation without being handled manually. The vacuum lifter takes care of the grip on the glass itself.

Together with the crane’s radio remote control, that gave the operator direct control of both the crane movements and the attitude of the panel while standing where the glass was actually going. On glazing work that is normally the difference between a straightforward placement and a long series of small corrections.

Why the C30e

The C30e is the largest machine in the Hoeflon range and is fully electric, which suits work close to a building envelope and inside partly completed structures. On this job its value was the combination of capacity for the panel weights and smooth, low-speed movement — the two things that decide whether a heavy pane can be brought into a frame cleanly.