British Museum facility gets Hird glass lifting boost

Hird glass lifting technology put on a good display as it was used to help build a new British Museum storage complex that will also allow scientist to view artifacts currently not on show.

A UNIC 376 tracked spider crane was teamed up with a Kappel DSZ2 vacuum glass lifter to install large window panels at the new facility at Shinfield in Berkshire.

The 168,200 sq ft British Museum Archaeological Research Collection, known as BM_ARC, is costing £65m to build and is located on a science park run by Reading University.

Large glass panels

Hird’s Southern Operational Centre at Redhill supplied the UNIC URW-376 mini crane and the DSZ2 glass suction lifter that made easy work of installing the large glass panels.

The spider crane has a maximum safe working load of 2.9t at 2.5m. It delivers a maximum working height of 14.9m which increases to 16.6m with a fly jib.

A crane operator can either control the diesel-powered crane from a sit-in position or using a radio remote control. This allows the lift to be controlled from the best possible vantage point.

The Kappel DSZ2 glass vacuum lifter has a maximum safe working load of 750kg with extension arms for holding large panels fitted, as they were for the British Museum lift.

Dual circuit safety

A key feature is its narrow design, that allows the glass lifter to be used in tight working environments, for example behind scaffolding. A dual circuit suction system is one of the lifter’s key safety features.

With 360-degree powered rotation and 90-degree manual tilting, the glass vacuum lifter is well placed to ensure loads are lifting and placed with precision, with less manual handling.

Hird has one of the UK’s largest mini crane hire fleets, with spider cranes and Valla pick and carry cranes available.

The UNIC URW-376 spider crane is one of a range of UNIC mini cranes available for hire from Hird, with SWLs from 995kg, for the UNIC URW-94, to 6t for the UNIC URW-706.

Hird also has a Maeda spider crane hire fleet with cranes that can lift weights ranging from 1.72t – the Maeda MC174 – and 8t – with the Maeda MC805.

Maeda spider cranes

A full range of glass vacuum lifters, including specialist curved glass vacuum lifters, range in capacity from 135kg, with the Woods Powr-Grip MT2 up to the Kappel Hydraulica 3500, known as Brutus, that can lift 3.5t.

British Museum’s BM_ARC will house many large scale artifacts and sculptures. For the first time, it will allow scientists to request to see assemblages of items so they can be studied together.

It sounds like they might need some help lifting such artifacts into place. Well, they know who to call.

Find out more about crawler spider crane hire rates and glass lifter hire rates from Hird. Available from each of our four operational centres across the UK.

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