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Link-Belt Gives Crane Owners Telematics Data

Who owns your data? If you own a new Link-Belt crane, you do, according to Bill Stramer, vice president of marketing for the Lexington, Ky.-based manufacturer

As global crane owners are cautiously adopting telematics to manage maintenance, safety, geography and other risks, manufacturers such as Link-Belt are grappling with how to provide machine data in the absence of a wide-reaching industry standard.

Telematics, or the long-distance transmission of computer-based information, is a “tremendous opportunity to enhance your fleet management and, ultimately, your fleet performance,” said Stramer, who addressed 260 crane owners, suppliers and users on Nov. 12 at the World Crane and Transport Summit in Miami. But fleet owners have been cautious to adopt it, and those who have adopted it use data in many different ways, complicating the manufacturer’s job in serving up the information.

“My experience is, if you ask 10 customers what they want to do with their telematics data, you are going to get 10 completely different answers,” Stramer said.

Openness made sense for Link-Belt, now in its 140th year of operation. Instead of baking its own proprietary telematics system into its machines, Link-Belt earlier this year partnered with A1A Software LLC to introduce iCraneTrax, a third-party platform supplied on all new Link-Belt machines. The device also can be retrofitted on other makes and models, too.

“One of the biggest mistakes we could have made would have been to develop something too specialized, too hard to deal with, too complicated and less customer-friendly,” Stramer said.

A1A tracks inputs such as machine location, component hours and maintenance intervals and pulls this info from all Tier 4 Final-equipped machines at no up-front cost, Stramer said. Users then receive one free year of basic service from A1A as part of their crane purchase. After that, subscription fees cost $25 per month per unit in the U.S. and $31 per month per unit outside of the U.S.

For advanced users, iCraneTrax can pull more than 175 data points and hundreds of fault codes to integrate that data with enterprise software systems, helping owners to plan fleet maintenance, keep tabs on client use, dispatch jobs and conduct billing. That level of service costs $1,000 per year for up to five company users.

Although the Association of Equipment Management Professionals and the Association of Equipment Manufacturers this year jointly developed a telematics standard, which is awaiting international certification, they did not involve crane producers in the process. Stramer said Link-Belt and other crane makers hope to be included in future versions. However, Stramer noted that iCraneTrax's existing data already maps over to the forthcoming standard, he added.

Beyond engine upkeep, telematics usage is seen as an emerging tool for managing other aspects of the capital-intensive and risky crane business. Link-Belt’s telematics system does not track all the specific lifting information stored in the crane’s data logger, which the manufacturer typically interprets at the owner’s request, but some limited information is provided.

A Link-Belt machine now can report to owners in what percentage of the unit’s capacity chart it has operated recently and alert the owner in the event of a potential overload situation. Pushing into the cloud more detailed information on every pick—such as load weight, radius, boom length and winch movement—would require much wider bandwidth and subscription fees, said Tawnia Weiss, president of A1A.

“It’s a huge amount of data,” Weiss said, adding, “The crane industry is in its infancy with telematics.” In terms of privacy, however, the A1A system allows crane owners to decide—at any time—with whom to share their data.

"You can decide from the very first moment if you want to share your data or not," Stramer said.

Sip or Gulp It?

Likening the telematics experience to a drink of water amid an ocean of data, Stramer indicated that some crane customers prefer a sip, while others prefer a 20-oz. glass or even a direct hit from the fleet-data fire hose. In the case of Brazil-based specialty contractor Makro Engenharia, it has opted for the fire hose.

“We believe our industry is decades behind” telematics adoption, said David Rodrigues, CEO of the South American crane, rigging and heavy-haul firm. “We want to know where our people are and what they are doing."

Now in its second year of tracking, Makro’s newly formed safety-monitoring division can wirelessly diagnose equipment problems, reduce downtime and improve safety on projects across the vast country. Working with Autotrac, a Brazil-based tech company headed by former Formula One racing driver Nelson Piquet, Makro in the past year has reduced internally reported safety violations to virtually zero from 900, Rodrigues said.

“Link-Belt is doing a good job, but we need to monitor even more because we can’t live on 10 different platforms,” Rodrigues explained, adding that, while working in the remote Amazon region, “you can imagine the cost if we had to have a crane down for a week.” Half of Makro's fleet, or roughly 300 units, is equipped with telematics capability.

Many tech companies have private satellites that offer crane users a wider, global range, but getting all the equipment manufacturers to share the telematics data has been a challenge, Rodrigues observed, as some do not yet provide it to even their clients.

“My belief is that they are trying to keep the data so they can protect themselves,” Rodrigues said. For example, manufacturers may compile information that invalidates a warranty or shields the factory from liability in the event of an accident. Today, telematics offerings are inconsistent among crane makers.

Manitowoc began addressing the emerging telematics demand four years ago with its CraneStar service, developed with OrbComm and now installed on 6,500 units worldwide. All new Manitowoc cranes ship with CraneStar activated for three years for free, and nominal data rates apply thereafter. According to Larry Weyers, Manitowoc’s global executive vice president, 60% of Manitowoc crane buyers have renewed CraneStar after the free trial period expired.

On the other hand, Terex Corp., another large crane maker, prefers to monitor crane owners’ data on its own. “We use [the data] to monitor the cranes for our customers and maximize uptime,” said Rüdiger Zollondz, the company’s director of product marketing.

Managing Big Data

While Makro’s Rodrigues praises telematics for helping his firm to manage a fleet working across a large geographic area, executives of smaller firms working in a more local environment see potential savings, as well.

By sharing data with the factory, for example, crane owners might get answers to problems faster. “I could see telematics as being useful for remote diagnostics when we can’t solve the problem,” said Robert Weiss, vice president of Maspeth, N.Y.-based Cranes Inc. Because crane makers do not always share their fault codes with customers, owners often need to get the factory or dealer involved in making repairs.

Still, when resolving problems with these complex pieces of equipment, “nothing beats a trip to the crane,” Weiss said, adding that his firm’s cranes currently have GPS and remote hour meters so that rental managers can track user activity and provide accurate billing.

With even more usage information and instant-messaging alerts, the ability to plan scheduled maintenance, identify problems and troubleshoot a broken crane remotely can save time and money, Rodrigues and others said. Ignoring these alerts can be risky, and although crane age has not yet been linked to accident risk, a lack of regular upkeep has.

“Regular and scheduled maintenance is what we have found to be the key to longevity,” said Jim Wiethorn, chairman and principal engineer of forensic consultant Haag Engineering Co., who has studied hundreds of crane accidents. However, Wiethorn and others warned that the increasing use of technology could be dangerous if data is not managed well.

“Technology advancement does not equal safer lifts,” Wiethorn said. “Technology can help you a lot, but if you don’t input the data right or if you do something that changes the effects, it doesn’t do you any good. You may have that warm-and-fuzzy feeling, but in reality you are in danger.” Diligent lift planning, on the other hand, has been shown to reduce risk, he added.

Using telematics to monitor wear and tear eventually will have a profound effect on crane maintenance practices, Stramer predicted. “Broad operating hours are not the determining factor with regard to lubrication and maintenance,” he explained. “Telematics information can give the owner detailed information on the real use of components and the ability to perform the maintenance based on individual machine applications.” Ultimately, it is important to determine what level of data is right for your business.

“Be careful,” Stramer said. “If you really just want a drink of water, don’t frustrate yourself by turning on the fire hose.”

Photo by Tudor Van Hampton/ENR

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  • Boston, MA, USA
  • Lexington

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