Industrial News

Developed by E-Build Innovations, the TAC-3000 has been in use in Singapore and Korea for two years and is being introduced to the North and South American markets by Persha International, Inc., a United States company that also conducts heavy equipment safety training and NCCCO Certification. “It is truly the most innovative system to hit the market in a very long time,” reports Kendall Strysick, President of Persha International, “but it is not untested technology. The system has been proven out for over two years in overseas markets, and we are very excited to be the company that is bringing such a high level and much needed product to the United States.”

Since its introduction, the TAC-3000 has been well received and is generating safety awareness in the industry and interest from leaders in Tower Crane Manufacturing and Tower Crane Rental Companies. The TAC-3000 exceeds all International requirements for safety control devices and outperforms competitive systems. The TAC-3000 has been installed and is successfully running on four Tower Cranes at the McCarthy/Pinnacle Casino Project in St. Louis, Missouri where the anti-collision, boundary, and zone protection features are all being utilized. Successful installs at the University of Berkeley have also been completed, where Zone Protection within the busy campus is critical. Additional installs are set to be complete on Tower Cranes throughout The United States.

Kendall Strysick adds that McCarthy Construction should be recognized for their commitment to providing safe working conditions. “Legislation for products like this is slow to come. It is up to the Construction Companies, Crane Manufacturers, and Crane Rental Companies to take the lead on installing systems that help eliminate accidents, deaths, risk, and liability. Systems like the TAC-3000 will help progress the United States towards its place as the leader of safety standards in the world.”

Several key advantages of the TAC-3000 over other safety systems include a user friendly and informative Active TFT color LCD display panel compared to others with LED indicator or passive black/white LCD display. The LCD monitor shows colliding neighbor's crane indication & status compared to the competitor’s systems that have no indication at all. This feature greatly assists the operator in identifying crane positioning and the potential collision paths of all cranes on the site and allows more focus on the hook block and load. In addition, the TAC-3000 displays jib angle and trolley distance compared to other systems with only angle display or no display at all.

The TAC-3000 requires minimum maintenance as mechanical interface to the crane is not required compared to other systems that utilize gear attachment. Mechanical interface causes several points of failure that will impact operator performance and operation safety. Additional features to the TAC-3000 include Contact-less magnetic angle sensors compared to other systems using absolute encoder with gear, Potentiometer sensing for Trolley or Luffer elevation (sharing of potentiometer used for movement load control system) compared to other systems that use encoders, and Wireless off-site monitoring using TACView software and a notebook computer from a distance of up to 1500 feet line of sight. The TAC-3000 system is reusable for Hammer Head and Luffing Cranes (software selectable), making it a cost effective investment. Multilingual windows application software is also available.

The TAC-3000 Anti-Collision feature detects and anticipates the risk of hook block, jib, or counter jib collision when multiple cranes of different or same height are in use. The TAC-3000 allows the operation
to remain in the control of the operator until safe parameters are breached. In the event of a collision risk, the TAC-3000 utilizes stages of protection including audible warnings, slowing of the jib, hook block, or counter jib, and the eventual stopping of movement to prevent collision. Parameters set for these features are flexible to control load swing and customizable to each site.

The TAC-3000 Boundary Protection feature can be preset with a 25-point boundary protection area in which the hook block cannot operate or over-fly. The boundary protection feature is especially important when Tower Cranes are being used in congested areas common in cities and rehabilitation areas and when operating near power lines.

The TAC-3000 Zone Protection feature can determine up to 6 prohibited zones (8-points each) in which the hook block or jib are not allowed to operate. It prevents the hook block from over-flying restricted zones like buildings, highways and other public areas.

“When the technology was first introduced to the United States, many companies thought the technology sounded to good to be true, leading companies to joke that the TAC-3000 was vaporware,” adds Kendall Strysick. “After many successful installs in the United States on some very complex sites, I am pleased to report that the TAC-3000 functions successfully in all aspects of its claims.”