Manitowoc Crane Group Holds Expo in Shady Grove, Draws Big Crowd

The Manitowoc Crane Group held a Product Expo for distributors and customers Sept. 21 to 24. The exhibition took place at the Shady Grove, PA, facility demonstration area and featured a variety of products. The products on display included: Manitowoc lattice boom crawler cranes; Grove mobile hydraulic cranes, National Crane boom truck cranes; Potain tower cranes; and Manlift aerial work platforms. The expo marked the first time products from all divisions of the Manitowoc Crane Group had been displayed in the United States since the acquisition of Grove in 2002 and did so in a big way with more than 30 products. There were three units on display from Manitowoc Cranes: the 275 ton (250 t) 999; the 150 ton (136 t) 555; and the 132 ton (120 t) 1015 duty-cycle crane. The 555 was shown for the first time with the new luffing jib. Six Grove all-terrain cranes were on display including the largest crane in the Grove fleet, an AmQuip-owned GMK7550. Grove also showed equipment from its &#8220;E&#8221; Series rough-terrain and truck crane lines, including the TMS900E launched in January 2003. The expo also launched the RT890E 90 ton (80 t) rough-terrain crane. The RT890E offers higher lift capacity, longer boom, lower overall height and a standard counterweight removal system over its predecessors. National Crane 1400 and 1400H 33-ton (30 t) units were displayed next to the Shady Grove built N8100D, which has a 23 ton (21 t) capacity. Full production of the National Crane line is scheduled to move to Shady Grove by the end of 2003. Two self-erecting tower cranes from the Potain product line were erected at the expo providing visitors with a look at the 6.6-ton (6 t) HDT80 and the HD40A 4.4-ton (4 t) capacity units. Manlift presented eight products from the line of straight boom, articulating, scissor and vertical mast and push models. Considerable attention at the Manlift display was given to the large scissor models and the recently introduced T40 straight boom model. Manlift scissor lifts range in height from 50 to 105 ft. (15.2 to 32 m) while the T40 features a 40-ft. (12.1 m) platform height. Prior to the Product Expo, more than 100 SC&RA members participating in the 2003 SC&RA Crane and Rigging Workshop held in Arlington, VA, came to Shady Grove for an open house with product demonstrations and a plant tour. Throughout the SC&RA Open House and the Product Expo, representatives from Canada, Mexico, Ecuador, Brazil, Guatemala, and as far away as Nigeria came to see the facilities, people and products of the Manitowoc Crane Group. David Birkhauser, senior vice president, sales Americas, said, &#8220;This is the first opportunity we have had to show the full Manitowoc Crane Group line of machines in the United States and our distributors, customers and other guests were enthusiastic in their response. Overall, we had nearly 600 guests who took the opportunity to see the machines in action, inspect them closely and tour our plant facilities. The comments we received from our guests about our products, our people and our facilities were extremely positive. We were happy for such a great turnout and enjoyed talking with all the friends who took the time to visit with us.&#8221; For more information, call 717/593-5348.