Link-Belt
unveils industry-first, web-based lift planning tool
Las Vegas, NV (March 11, 2008)—Unveiled at ConExpo 2008, Link-Belt Cranes announced an industry-first, web-based 3D Lift Plan tool. The online program gives Link-Belt crane owners accurate, timely 3D lift planning capability anywhere in the world, 24/7. The 3D Lift Plan tool is a simple, straightforward, and accurate lift planning application that is available through Link-Belt Preferred, Link-Belt’s customer support program.
The 3D Lift Plan application was designed to be highly user friendly with step-by-step instructions. It requires no CAD programs, extensive updates, or training. It’s accessible from any computer location and offers safe, secure storage of any lift plan, complete with metric or English units, load and rigging data, and jobsite obstructions.
During the simulation, the actual lift is viewed with cutting-edge, high quality 3D graphics that create detailed jobsites complete with views of changing machine configurations, load charts, landscape and site obstruction items. Once a plan is set, an engineer-scale lift plan, complete with notes and logos, can be printed from any angle to document the lift plan.
In recent years Link-Belt found, through Voice of the Customer (VOC) investigations of lift planning programs, not only that users wanted one bucket in which to put all makes of their cranes, but also it must be current information and available at all branch and jobsite locations, 24/7. It must be 3D graphically accurate, printable with documentation and exportable to a CAD program. The new 3D Lift Plan application fulfills all of these objectives and more.
Other industry lift planning programs are CD-based and must be manually and individually updated with new features and data at each location. They generally require software purchases and weeks of long training. And they generally become uncontrolled pieces of data focusing on only one manufacturer’s models.
3D Lift Plan is updated online 24/7 as needed. It is simple, intuitive, requiring no special training to operate. In the near future, 3D Lift Plan.com will feature four languages, tandem picks, and various other rigging and block configurations.
Since 1993, Link-Belt has made substantial investments in developing Link-Belt Preferred online applications, starting with technical parts and service information for literally every crane made over the last 55 years. In 2001, Link-Belt, in response to the Voice of the Customer input, was first to introduce a web based groundbearing pressure calculator for on-the-job crane users. This has proven to be highly successful among crane users.
Today, this market-proven, web-based groundbearing pressure calculator, coupled with the new 3D Lift Plan, gives crane users another industry exclusive of being able to plan on-the-job lifts and calculate groundbearing pressures in real time, anywhere in the world, 24/7.
Link-Belt commissioned A1A software, Jacksonville, FL, to develop this industry-first, web-based application called 3D Lift Plan. Link-Belt cooperated with A1A software, who has over 35 years experience in lift planning applications, in developing the web concept and supplying crane information for all of its cranes.