Tower Crane Training @ Favelle Favco

This whole week, I had to attend a tower crane course in Senawang, Negeri Sembilan. Our training venue was at Favelle Favco factory. Favelle Favco is one of the leading crane makers in the world.

This is the training room inside the factory. We spent 5 days here for lecture and written assessment.

We pretty much had a break once every 2 hours. In other words, we were well fed.

After each lecture, we will be given demonstration and practical. Here, we are doing Non Destructive Test (NDT) on a wire rope using the latest technology. I did not realize there is such technology until this week which use the principle of magnetic flux leakage to detect the flaw inside the wire rope.

We were shown a wide array of ultrasonic equipment to detect flaws in welding. The more accurate equipment such as ultrasonic phased array was showcased here to us.

Some of the conventional crack detection test in the industry such as dye penetrant test and MPI test.

The highlight of the entire course is for us to climb this luffing tower crane and to operate it. It is a 4 storey climb up and it is definitely not for the faint heart.

This is me in coverall and safety harness before making the climb. This is the first time I put on a safety harness. Before this, I just climb up any structure without any protection.

This is the view from the crane's cab. There are 2 joy sticks to control the hook and jib. It is not as easy as it looks to control the load. It takes a delicate and steady hand to do so.

After a few practice session, it was time for our assessment where we need to steer the load at the intended path. If one knock down the barricade, the candidate will be considered fail.

The second test is to land the load at a designated spot where the crane operator view will be block. Here, the operator need to rely entirely on the signalman to navigate the load.

Thank God I passed both the written and practical assessment and was rewarded with certificate of competency to inspect crane and as a assessor to crane operator.

The closing ceremony was officially closed by our Deputy Director General. In the end of the day, it was fun and it was an opportunity for me to meet my other colleagues from other state offices.