New NX Series NextGen Multi Activity Cranes In The Market
Manish Mathur
CEO – Cranes Action Construction Equipment (ACE) Ltd. www.ace-cranes.com
ACE is India’s leading Material Handling and Construction Equipment manufacturing company with a majority market share in Mobile Cranes and Tower Cranes segment. ACE has a consolidated presence in all major Infrastructure, Construction, Heavy Engineering and Industrial Projects across the country. Manish Mathur, CEO – Cranes Action Construction Equipment (ACE) Ltd. in conversation with CE&CR, shares his views on industry demands, new product, R&D and much more.
CE&CR: How are you meeting the industry demands and challenges in the post pandemic market?
Manish Mathur: COVID-19 has brought about a paradigm shift to life, as we know it, and also to the way we conduct business. Few strategies we undertook to grow -
• Review of business strategies and accordingly developing skills of our employees.
• The COVID months have given us an opportunity to focus on the Research & Development activities which involve Design & Development of new products, upgradation of existing products and VA/VE activities wherever possible.
• Effective communication between the team members of the company and collective decision making, with respect to obstacles faced due to the pandemic, enabled us to sustain and grow our company during the last year. Times are surely challenging but “When the going gets tough, the Tough get going.”
CE&CR: Are you looking to add new equipments to your existing product portfolio? Give our readers an understanding about the key features in terms of safety, operator comfort and user interface.
Manish Mathur: ACE has recently launched NX Series NextGen Multi Activity Cranes. As the name suggests, these new NX Series cranes perform multiple tasks apart from crane operations thereby adding versatility and providing multi-purpose utilization for the users. These type of multi activity cranes with articulated steering are the first in the world and ACE has already applied for the necessary patents for the entire series.
There are 3 different types of models which have been introduced – NX-360o , NXP & NXT.
NX-360o Model is a multi-activity crane with 360o full slew operation, apart from regular pick & carry operation with lifting capacity of 20 Tons and height of 21.5 meters. 360o slew operation would find applications in all areas of infrastructure, construction as well as industrial use.
Second in NX series, is model NXP. This 15 Ton capacity crane combines the added advantage of Aerial work platform (man lift) along with the usage as Pick N Carry crane. Most of the construction/infrastructure sites require a crane for lifting and shifting of loads as well as Aerial work platform for people to work at heights for erection, installation and miscellaneous jobs. Currently most of the sites are deploying two different equipment i.e. a Crane and an Aerial Work Platform separately whereas by using NXP model their overall owning and operating cost is reduced significantly as one machine with one operator would do both the jobs instead of two machines and two operators.
Third in the series, is model NXT Nextgen Multi Activity Crane, which is a Telehandler cum Pick N Carry Crane of 15 Tons capacity. The Telehandler fork attachment has a capacity of 3 Tons upto the maximum height of 12.3 meters unlike the traditional Telehandlers, wherein the maximum capacity is limited only to very small working radius and very limited heights. This increased capacity and height adds to the versatility of NXT model and makes it suitable for a lot of load applications, where the traditional Telehandlers are not able to work. The hydraulically operated compensated forks are designed to ensure that the load always remains parallel to the ground during the boom luffing/extension operations. The Telehandler fork fitment can be attached or detached on the crane within 5 minutes just like the NXP model.
Adding to this portfolio, ACE has launched an innovative Multi Activity Crane FP210 which is capable of doing all support activities at a piling site like Cage Lowering, Concreting and Casing removal along with being a 20 Tons 4x4 Pick n Carry Crane performing the normal crane application of loading, unloading, shifting and erection of material at site. The crane model FP210 is gaining popularity since it can replace 2 machines at site (Normal Crane + Crawler Crane) and will be able to perform dual functions at the cost of one.
With these new launches, ACE is sure to maximize customer’s savings by providing multi- purpose usages as per their requirements.
CE&CR: Please provide an in-depth analysis of the R&D and customisation process that goes into your design and innovation.
Manish Mathur: R&D has been one of the key elements in our success story and our in-house R&D Centre is duly approved by Govt. of India. Over the years speedy commercialization of world class designs and technologies in our company, have been instrumental in making us the largest Crane Company in India.
All of our products are designed in-house keeping Indian operational and market conditions in mind. The very USP of our product comes from the fact that with appropriate design we are able, also, to control the costs to cater to benefit our customers.
Our R&D Centre has played a very significant role in the growth of our organisation over the last decade.
Hence we are spending greatly on our R&D and on enhancing the customer experience and engagement with the product. This also includes digital empowering of our internal and external operations to create a more efficient organization.
CE&CR: Digitisation is no new player, what such support does the company offer for its equipments’ maintenance and upkeep? Also, tell us about your after sales and customer support services.
Manish Mathur: The company provides option of Telematics which in turn digitises the equipment. It helps the owners of the machinery to remotely monitor and supervise the various functional parameters of the machine & remain updated of its health and maintaining the same to optimum level for better performance.
The use of technology in machinery provides opportunities to improve the design and production of products using the service feedback. This can reduce considerably, the overall cost of the machinery through its lifespan along with a reduction in material consumption.
Leaders in their arena, ACE, has always pro-actively fulfilled each one of its customers’ needs, requirements and indeed wishes. Technology is now at centre-stage and its use will not only be providing economically viable solutions for the manufacturers, operators and customers, but also environmentally viable solutions in the future.
At ACE we are already utilizing some of the best technology available worldwide and we constantly work to upgrade and adapt all possible technology to Indian working conditions. Making sure Nothing Beats an ACE!
Currently, we are operating from more than 100 locations at pan India level and are present at the most of the strategic locations with the dealers having spares stocked as per the population of machines , so as to cater the remotest site within 24 hours of complaint registration. We also have a facility of 24x7 help line for our customers, so as to give them the best support at the earliest. Most of the spares including the critical ones are stocked at our dealer points so as to ensure seamless support.
CE&CR: What is the future outlook of the construction equipment industry and in particular for ACE?
Manish Mathur: Any industrial or Infrastructure activity will drive the demand of Cranes as all the material handling activities are primarily done by cranes, and ACE is the largest Mobile Crane manufacturer in India. In fact, despite a devastating second wave we expect the market to grow by at least 25% in FY21-22. Further, our Pick n Carry cranes are the first equipment getting in any particular infra site and the last to move out.
With Govt. determined to initiate infra activity worth `5.5 Lac Crore in this financial year, not only our crane industry but the entire construction equipment industry has great days ahead.
Infrastructure push by government with increased focus in public private partnership projects and inflow of FDI’s in the construction space has been instrumental in driving demand. The government has outlined several road works, building works and smart city development projects. All these will require construction and earth-moving equipment, which will result in the fast-paced growth of the construction equipment sector in India.
Further, Infra push will be dependent upon accelerating in availability of Finance and Construction companies emerging with stronger balance sheets.
National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP) is the key demand driver for the CE industry. Road transport, railways, irrigation, water resources, airports are the key projects covered under the NIP program. It is expected that infrastructure spending by the government will continue to remain robust in the coming years.
