As part of a £16 million project at the University of Salford GGR Group was commissioned to assist in the construction of 2 houses for a research facility. Energy House 2.0 is the 2nd of its kind energy efficiency testing environmental chamber where the weather can be artificially created. In the original Energy House, the laboratory comprised an early 20th-century two-bedroom terraced house. The newest Energy House 2.0 contains two three-bedroom detached new build homes which use modern low-carbon technologies.

To build these test houses GGR’s client required a lifting solution that could easily fit inside the test centre but still perform tricky and precise heavy lifts in lifting locations with limited working space available. With much of the construction completed in an off-site factory location for controlled quality this meant many of the essential parts were prefabricated. This meant that they would be quicker to put together but would be too heavy for manual lifting.

GGR Group had the task of lifting prefabricated internal walls into place for installation. After an initial consultation, GGR found that the TMC 525 Articulated Crawler Crane would be best suited to this unusual project. Offering ultimate flexibility with a knuckle boom and a continuous 360 rotation the TMC 525 was able to manoeuvre with ease in the indoor construction site. With limited overhead space due to being indoors a crane with a regular boom could not perform all the lifts needed as significant reach was needed without coming into contact with the ceiling. The knuckle boom solved this issue as it can tilt its jib up to 20˚ and reach over and under obstacles. As well with the continuously rotating base the crane was able to lift loads from every direction and slew it into position.

The TMC 525’s included radio remote control allowed the operator to move with the load and operate from the best visual standpoint. With the many position changes needed for the crane, the operator could freely position themselves on the ground or the various levels of scaffolding throughout the site. When folded down the TMC 525 also becomes a compact width of 1850mm for ease of tracking through smaller spaces and loading onto transportation.