An iconic London project for AMCS technologies

AMCS technologies was privileged to work on the 70 St Mary’s Axe project in London. It is a project comprising of the construction of a commercial office building located in the heart of London.

AMCS technologies was privileged to work on the 70 St Mary’s Axe project in London. It is a project comprising of the construction of a commercial office building located in the heart of London. 

The skyscraper nicknamed “The Can of Ham”, because of its sloping roof, started in April 2015. Mace started on site in June the following year and it should be completed in December 2018. The skyscraper will house 28,000m² of premium office space set over 21 floors, with three additional basement levels. The building’s unique shape means that each office floor is a slightly different size from the ones above and below it, but all benefit from views out through the building’s glazed exterior. 

There were three cranes erected at once for a brief time on the job site. It was mainly a two cranes job site. AMCS technologies anti-collision and zoning systems operated on three cranes a Wolff 224B, a Wolff 180B and a Wolff 166B. 

AMCS technologies UK installed the DCS 60 (Driving Control System) that represent a real driving assistance for the realization of this specific project. The main objectives of this job site is the quest for precision. 

As Adam Blakeley, Lifting Operations Manager at Mace group, specified “All I will say about the DCS 60 is, not once have I had any issue with the system. The system allowed the crane operator to work closer to the opposite crane and did not interfere with the operations of lifting. The screen in the operator’s cab is clear and precise.” 

This flagship product, ensure three fundamental functions: 

Zoning: 3-dimensional prohibited zones are quickly defined directly on the screen, by associating geometric shapes with the areas or static obstacle concerned. 

Anti-collision: The system operates in real time and in 3D to calculate the distances between each part of the crane as well as movement speeds. It enables action to be taken on equipped mechanisms to ensure complete immobilisation of the crane at a pre-set distance from a particular obstacle. 

Display unit and data logger: It continuously records and saves events related to "prohibited area" and "interference" function management, allowing direct viewing and/or downloading to a flash drive. An additional function enables the dynamic recording of certain information concerning system and/or crane status. 

“The informations of each crane for the anti-collision function can be set up very quickly. The DCS 60 continually saves the crane’s movements and all parameters. They can be logged, downloaded and shared by email, facilitating crane maintenance.” highlighted Adam Blakeley. 

The company now covers the majority of the market thanks to its involvement but especially the trust given by the biggest cranes companies and construction groups. “We used the AMCS as it was the customer’s preference and we were impressed with the features. There have been no reported issues and the system has performed as required.” said Julian Dyer, Senior Sales Manager at HTC Wolffkran.