At a major global manufacturer of articulated construction vehicles, Crane Electronics is making a major contribution to the final quality, reliability and safety of the vehicles. Durability is also a critical issue in this highly competitive market place and Crane’s products are allowing the manufacturer to demonstrate to their customers a total commitment to the highest levels of manufacturing quality procedures and that they can expect maximum return on their investment.

The trucks are huge, with capacities ranging from 23 to 42 tons. They are designed to move a wide range of construction materials within many different, tough operating environments. Torque management products including readouts, wrenches, joint kits, tool monitoring and control equipment as well as many other associated products and software have been supplied by Crane to this company for many years. They have mainly been used for their tool capability testing and occasional production line testing.

To provide even better results, the company has now upgraded to Crane’s TorqueStar Opta and the Opta Comms SPC software package. These provide greater flexibility, a common working platform, better documentation and far higher levels of functionality. Crane Electronics has not only supplied the hardware and software, but has also offered invaluable application experience. This has included, for example, the establishment of routines for testing tooling, producing reliable torque documentation and keeping historical reporting information.

As a result many of the tool testing regimes have been streamlined and the quality of torque documentation has been improved. This means considerably less time is now spent on the generation of paperwork for full torque traceability. Instead, the manufacturer can devote more time to actually carrying out torque readings on the production line. As a result, even greater levels of reassurance can be provided to customers about the quality, safety and durability of these 42 ton giants.