Another first for Tramanco’s CHEK-WAY® Electronic Scale Systems designed and manufactured by them in Brisbane is their CRANE-SCALE® or CRANE-BRAIN® as it is often referred to by their clients to solve several longevity and productivity problems in the palm oil industry in Papua New Guinea. Various Palm Oil producers approached Roger Sack (Managing Director of Tramanco) in 1993 with a series of challenges which were subsequently trialled in the field from 1995 and were all resolved by 1997.

The CRANE-SCALE® with Tramanco’s unique CRANE-BRAIN technology was thus installed on both Hiab and Terex/Atlas cranes which operated in the demanding and harsh environments of P.N.G. which, to anyone who has been there, knows that if it works in P.N.G. it will work anywhere. Systems are now being installed on other knuckle-boom cranes with the same longevity and accuracy.

TRAMANCO developed an asymmetric weighing pin load cell which connects to their standard CHEK-WAY® hardware. Because all CHEK-WAY® systems are software based it became reasonably easy to design and to manufacture the hardware for this specific application. The software, however, was a whole new project because the cranes operate without any stabiliser legs so the whole vehicle rocks back and forth as each load is lifted and weighed.

With direct input from PNG the CRANE-SCALE system operated and continues to operate within an average accuracy range of better than +/- 0.5%, for every load it collects and there can be 15 or more loads picked up and weighed and recorded in any of the 18 or 20 trips per day. Additional functions include electronic I.D. tags for individual Driver I.D., Operator I.D., and Grower I.D., and live printed data records so that complete control can be kept over the whole operation. Tramanco wrote a completely new computer programme for this application which directly links each in-field vehicle collection via a radio link to the mill weighbridges on a per vehicle basis to download the and weight and its associated data directly into the company’s accounting package software.

The systems feature G.P.S. interfaces and yield mapping for further productivity and profitability gains. All of this has been achieved in a country which is noted for its mountains and gorges and extreme off-road operating conditions. This CRANE-BRAIN© system is not only a testament to the simplicity and the proven longevity of all CHEK-WAY® systems, but to the skills and dedication of the customers/owners of these systems who saw an opportunity through Tramanco to solve their problems with CHEK-WAY’s unique approach to weighing. Their previous experiences with several other weighing systems showed that none of them had the durability, accuracy, or the simplicity to continuously perform in the rigorous conditions under which they operate, whereas the CHEK-WAY® systems have stood up to anything and everything that they have asked the systems to do for them.

Scale School training of their staff in P.N.G. and at Tramanco in Brisbane have ensured that regular maintenance and repairs are carried out by the owner’s own staff thus ensuring maximum availability, and productivity from their many truck mounted CHEK-WAY CRANE-BRAIN© OBM SCALE® weighing systems. This shows that we can jump the technology gap between the old and the new because: “where there is a will – there is a weigh”.