Tadano America Corp. cranes, with several safety features, help oilfield services company complete jobs of any size and weight.
Safety and dependability are always top considerations when oilfield contractors invest in new equipment. That makes all-terrain cranes manufactured by Tadano America Corp. a perfect fit for the fast-paced operations at FESCO, a diversified oilfield services company headquartered in Alice, Texas.
The company — which offers everything from crane and slickline to engineering and production testing services — owns six Tadano cranes: two ATF 180G-5s with 200-ton maximum lifting capacity, one ATF 100G-4 with a 110-ton capacity, and three GT-900XLs with 90-ton capacity. The company also runs five Grove all-terrain cranes (a brand owned by Manitowoc Cranes), with lifting capacities ranging from 115 to 165 tons, says Kevin Franke, large-crane district manager for FESCO’s crane division, based in Victoria, Texas.
In simplest terms, FESCO’s crane division does the heavy lifting, so to speak, for other service contractors. Whether it’s slicklines or coil-tubing units, the company’s cranes spend a lot of time on drilling pads holding up equipment while contractors work.
“We also set up equipment on location, such as tanks and pumps,” Franke says. “We also hold coil-tubing units that go downhole. We basically hold up equipment for other service companies.”
DEPENDABLE EQUIPMENT
While the cranes hold large, heavy items in place every day, one thing they rarely hold up is drilling pad operations. “They’re very dependable machines,” Franke says. “They don’t break down, which is critical because breakdowns cost money. They go out on jobs and they finish jobs, with no mechanical or computer issues. They go out and do the job, we clean them up and they go out again to do more jobs.”
Franke has worked with Tadano cranes before, when he worked for other companies, so he’s familiar with their track record for dependability. But he also praises the Tadanos’ load charts; for anyone unfamiliar with that terminology, load charts show a crane’s abilities regarding weight-capacity limitations at certain boom heights and angles.
“I’ve done the research and Tadanos have better load charts,” he says. “Our 200-ton cranes (the ATF 180G-5s) are the most popular because they can do more kinds of jobs.”
The ATF 180G-5s prove their mettle on every job. In one instance, it lifted a 72,000-pound coil-tubing unit with 25,000 feet of 2 7/8-inch-diameter pipe wrapped around the spool. “The wire unspools as it goes downhole,” Franke explains. “We set it on top of the tree and held it so it wouldn’t fall over while we were going downhole.”
Franke also cites the Tadanos’ user-friendly controls, which feature one computer screen instead of two. The computer that serves as the cranes’ brain is simple to comprehend and use.
“It doesn’t have a lot of extra bells and whistles that are confusing,” he says. “All in all, they’re set up really, really nice.”
This less-is-more approach makes it easier to train operators, though Franke notes it still takes about six months of instruction in the company’s equipment yard to familiarize employees with operations. Then operators get tested to obtain national certification, followed by six to eight months of additional training, this time out in the field under the watchful eye of a veteran operator. “It takes a good year to 18 months before we cut them loose on their own,” Franke notes.
ENHANCING THE SAFETY
The computerized controls also enhance safety because they shut down the crane if an operator accidentally exceeds its limitations. “To scope out, for instance, you pull up the screen, select how far you want it to go out and hit enter, then it scopes out and locks in the pins — it’s all automatic,” Franke says. “But it shuts you off when you get to the edge of your load chart. It will let you do things that make the crane stronger, but not anything that makes it weaker.”
Tadanos offer other safety benefits, too. For instance, there are two control panels that extend the crane’s hydraulic, telescoping outriggers for stability, one on each side of the truck; each control panel operates only the outriggers on the side where the panel is mounted. That eliminates the chances of an operator on one side of the crane extending outriggers on the other side, where other workers may be standing unbeknownst to the operator, Franke explains. “There are cases where workers have been crushed that way,” he says.
The Tadanos also offer a backup camera that, when the crane is put into reverse, enables the driver to see behind the rig. “It’s really helpful because you can see your rigger standing behind you,” Franke notes. “We always have a rigger with a flag standing behind a crane when it backs up, but the camera still helps the driver. Drilling pads are very congested, so it helps if the driver can see better behind the crane.
“There’s also a camera on back that allows the driver to see the cable coming off the winches,” he adds. “I like being able to keep an eye on that because sometimes cables get messed up on the spool and this allows you to see that from the cab. Before we just had mirrors, which weren’t as good.”
Another advantage: All the wheels turn at once, which allows drivers to do “crabbing,” or make tight turns — a very useful feature on congested drilling pads, Franke points out. And with eight-wheel drive, the units live up to their all-terrain name. “With eight-wheel drive, you rarely get stuck,” Franke says.
NO WORKING WITHOUT THEM
With price tags ranging from around $900,000 for the smaller units to about $1.6 million for the ATF 180G-5s, the cranes represent a significant investment. But Franke notes that they’re often out on jobs for weeks at a time. “They pay for themselves pretty quickly if you keep ’em busy,” he says. “And if you keep them well maintained, there’s no reason they can’t last for 20 years.
“The bottom line is we couldn’t do what we do without them,” Franke continues. “We have to have cranes to hold up the equipment, and they have to be stout and be able to get to remote locations. Then they need to be user-friendly when we get to job sites, easy to set up and break down, and maneuverable in tight quarters. The Tadanos do all of that — they make our jobs much easier.”
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