Is It an Excavator, Crane or a “Cran-avator”?

I came across this batch of photos on LinkedIn last week, originally posted by Reece Dillon who is a Regional Sales Manager for Palfinger in New Zealand who led the project for the manufacturer, and I couldn’t resist sharing them here on the Digger Man Blog.

Is it a digger or is it a crane, either way this innovative piece of design work is the result of some ingenious collaboration work between Palfinger New Zealand, Blair Skevington, Meister Solutions and C&C Engineering who collectively have designed, and created a highly versatile crane-excavator.

The Palfinger PK 53002SH crane has been designed to replace the Volvo EC220DL’s counterweight and sits on an extended and strengthened subframe, and looks like something that has come straight out of the Thunderbirds TV show!

The machine has a lifting capacity of 1580kgs at a reach of 21m, and according to Reece, the “digger-crane” has several impressive extra features, including P-Fold, a feature that enables the boom to fully unfold and refold from transport position to working position and vice versa at the push of a button; HPSC (High Performance Stability Control) automatically downgrades lifting capacity when the crane is unable to anchor itself on fully extended stabiliser jack legs, in addition the crane is designed to enable the use of a two man work basket.

The machine has already gone to work for specialist works company Skevington Contracting who commissioned the machine to meet their requirements. Its first job is working on the reconditioning of South Otago’s Waipori Dam.

The machine was already pre-booked for this first job which is expected to last for the six-months of the project. Reece says that there are endless opportunities ahead for this unique and specialist piece of kit, which can not only lift materials, but can excavate, and do everything else a digger can do too.

What an amazingly versatile machine it is. The Digger Man Blog would like to thank Reece for raising awareness of this unique piece of kit.