THE IMPORTANCE OF KNOWING THE USEFUL LIFE WHEN CHOOSING A CRANE

Do we make economic calculations related to the life time of a crane when we are buying it?

In this section we usualy deal with purely technical issues, improvements on the different devices, or introduce concepts of the operation of the crane itself but in the month of November we have decided to innovate and tell you about a point of equal importance when choosing a machine: its useful life.

By definition, the useful life is the period of use of equipment or machinery until it is obsolete and can only be sold as scrap parts, due to its residual value. When amortizing a machiner, the calculation that we could perform is roughly as follows.

Purchase machine: 110.000€
Useful life: 20 años
Residual value: 10.000€
Annual ammortization: 5.000€

In this case we are talking about a crane capable of working during 20 years on a daily basis, surely we could talk about a Fassi Crane of medium / heavy range.

Let us give an example where the machine is of lower quality and has a lower price cost but also a shorter life, as it happens with some brands of the direct competition of Fassi.

Purchase machine: 85.000€
Useful life: 10 años
Residual value: 5.000€
Annual ammortization: 8.000€

In the example, the team seems much cheaper at first, but it is costing 60% more each year to the company at an economic level and forcing to have the problem of making the change in half time.

In the examples, the useful life is half of machine 1 is twice that of machine 2, in an article at the beginning of the year we explained the difference between cranes that compete in the same market but have different hois class (S1, S2): https://www.transgruas.com/en/pl66/news/id715/how-to-compare-benefits-between-cranes-key-aspects-to-consider.htm 

We invite you to consider the importance of the concept "useful life" when choosing a crane and to look at the annual economic impact of the amortization instead of the total price of the machine itself.

In the next edition we will tell you 4-5 secrets that we have learned in the 40 years of technical and after sales department so that you can evaluate key factors when choosing a team and its body.