Innocrane has made a breakthrough agreement with KCI Konecranes which could see its ICRAS anti-sway technology become a standard product in industrial cranes.
Konecranes has bought the rights to use the ICRAS algorithm in combination with its own swing control products. KCI will also continue to develop its own swing control systems independently.
Innocrane president Kimmo Hytönen said that this arrangement between the two Finnish companies “strengthens the position of ICRAS technology as one of the leading load sway control systems worldwide”.
Hytönen said that Konecranes evaluated various systems and found that ICRAS was “the most practical, reliable and efficient”. Implementation of the ICRAS system was significantly simpler than the competing systems and start-up time was far shorter that any other system, Hytönen claimed.
Innocrane will continue marketing and developing ICRAS swing control products to other customers.
Innocrane was founded by Hytönen in 1992 after he obtained various patents for algorithms and other innovations through his earlier work as a research scientist investigating dynamic control of mechanical systems. In the 10 years since, ICRAS technology has been licensed into more than 500 cranes. However, Innocrane remains a small company whose technology has needed the backing of a major player like Konecranes in order to make a major impact on the industry.
Said Hytönen: “The most important thing is that this technology will be a standard in industrial cranes in the future. I also hope that this will open us many new doors, and make this technology acceptable in the eyes of many important customers, like steel plants, harbours etc. We have been successful in our installations, but to get this technology generally accepted we need it to be offered by the big crane companies.”
