A CE has recently launched NX Series NextGen Multi-Activity Cranes. As the name suggests, these new NX Series cranes perform multiple tasks apart from crane operations, thereby adding versatility and providing multi-purpose utilisation for the users. These machines have been developed by ACE at their in-house R&amp;D Centre. These multi-activity cranes with articulated steering are the first in the world and ACE has already applied for the necessary patents for the entire series.<p></p><p>There are three different types of models which have been introduced - NX-360o, NXP and NXT.</p><p>NX-360o Model is a multi-activity crane with 360o full slew operation, apart from regular pick-n-carry operation with lifting capacity of 20 tonne and height of 21.5 m. The 360o slew operation would find applications in all areas of infrastructure, construction as well as industrial use. In the recent past, there has been an increased demand for safer cranes and the market has been moving towards slew cranes, as the stability in these machines is comparatively better owing to full slew operation on outriggers. With the introduction of NX-360o, ACE would be able to cater to the requirements of customers for medium size slew cranes at 50-60 per cent of the cost of the traditional slew cranes of similar capacity with added advantage of pick-n-carry duty. This NX-360o model crane is equipped with SLI for 360o slew duty and pick-n-carry duty. </p><p>Second in NX series is model NXP. This 15 tonne capacity crane combines the added advantage of aerial work platform (man lift) along with the usage as pick-n-carry crane. Most of the construction/infrastructure sites require a crane for lifting and shifting of loads as well as aerial work platform for people to work at heights for erection, installation and miscellaneous jobs. Currently, most of the sites are deploying two different equipment, i.e., a crane and an aerial work platform separately whereas by using NXP model their overall owning and operating cost is reduced significantly as one machine with one operator would do both the jobs instead of two machines and two operators. This equipment would find a lot of applications in the industrial space as well, where there is requirement for maintenance/shut down maintenance at heights within plants or factories.</p><p>The jib of the man lift basket is hydraulically operated and people working at height can adjust/control the horizontal jib position and 180o basket rotation from the basket itself. The basket capacity is 230 kg with working height of 21 m (68 ft). In this machine, the safety for workmen at height is ensured through SLI which has a dual duty feature, i.e., for crane duty as well as man lift duty. Apart from SLI, the man basket also has had load cells which ensure against any overloading beyond 230 kg (rated capacity of the basket). The hydraulically operated man lift basket can be easily detached or attached to the crane within five minutes as and when required by the user.</p><p>Third in the series is model NXT Nextgen Multi-Activity Crane, which is a telehandler-cum-pick-n-carry crane of 15 tonne capacity. The telehandler fork attachment has a capacity of 3 tonne up to the maximum height of 12.3 m unlike the traditional telehandlers, wherein the maximum capacity is limited only to very small working radius and very limited heights. This increased capacity and height adds to the versatility of NXT model and makes it suitable for a lot of load applications, where the traditional telehandlers are not able to work. The hydraulically operated compensated forks are designed to ensure that the load always remains parallel to the ground during the boom luffing/extension operations. The telehandler fork fitment can be attached or detached on the crane within five minutes just like the NXP model. With these three new launches, ACE is sure to maximise customer's savings by providing multi-purpose usages as per their requirements.</p>