sollevare | a mini-crane with a full-electric heart

Brennero Gru’s crawler line now guarantees advanced performance with an additional bonus: Flash Battery’s cutting-edge lithium-ion technology, meaning long-lasting, totally maintenance-free batteries

Innovation always seeks its own elective affinities. When it comes to industrial cooperation in the field of mobile machinery, and lifting equipment in particular, we find – especially in Europe – many dynamics of partnership between suppliers of propulsion solutions (internal-combustion or electric) and crane and aerial platform manufacturers. The affinity in question here is that between a pioneer in the field of lithium-ion batteries, Flash Battery, and a “crane inventor,” Brennero Gru, a leading Italian company in the field of truck-mounted cranes and the recent founder of the BG Lift division dedicated to the manufacture of cutting-edge compact crawler cranes. Brennero Gru’s ambitious goal is to provide its clients with lifting equipment that is simple and intuitive, but also technologically innovative, high-performance, and most of all, as safe as possible (including aspects of environmental sustainability in an industrial safety policy).

Technological innovation and the sustainability of machinery today goes hand in hand with the “electric option” that is gradually replacing the traditional internal-combustion engine (diesel or gasoline) thanks to its many advantages in terms of greater efficiency, lower management costs, and a significant reduction in consumption and in harmful emissions. In 2017, Brennero Gru joined forces with the highest profile in this new era of sustainability when it encountered the technology of Flash Battery, a leading player on the international stage in the design and manufacture of lithium batteries for industrial machinery and electric vehicles. What the Cavaion Veronese-based manufacturer needed was to design a crane with great operational freedom that could even access interior spaces and the most delicate job sites, especially in urban settings, factories, and logistics facilities. And the goal that Brennero Gru and Flash Battery had in common was that of creating a customised application capable of offering a high level of performance according to the aforementioned dynamics of total environmental sustainability.

“The choice of a technological partner to help us introduce electric models into our product line fell to a genuine standout in the field,” says Michele Piantoni, after-sales manager of BG Lift-Brennero Gru. “Out of all the new companies currently developing cutting-edge technology, we felt that only Flash Battery had the dynamism, flexibility, and experience necessary to support our company’s most ambitious goal: manufacturing machinery powered by energy as clean and reliable as lithium-ion battery technology.” The close cooperation between Flash Battery and Brennero Gru became official in 2018 with the realisation of a prototype and the eventual mass production of a 10kWh lithium battery for the M250 Li-Ion mini crawler crane, which is completely electric-powered and offers exceptional performance for a light and extremely compact model. It is a model designed for multi-purpose use, in both indoor and outdoor settings, with manoeuvrability and precision features that support a fast, reactive, and flexible dynamic of action, adaptable to many work contexts. It is the perfect crane for workplaces with limited-access areas and delicate manoeuvrability difficulties.

To best take advantage of the autonomy offered by the new electric cranes of the BG Lift line, the Engineering Team of Brennero Gru has designed a detailed system based on high-efficiency motors and inverters, using specific software to optimise the power and energy made available by the lithium-ion battery powerpack. “We chose Flash Battery as a technological partner that is able to support us in our transition to electric power,” emphasises Michele Piantoni. “Flash Battery’s contribution has led us to fit our mini-cranes with lithium-ion batteries using LFP chemistry, which is an ideal technology for industrial use and the safest currently available on the market. Lithium batteries have brought exceptional advantages to our cranes, in terms of high operating efficiency, with a lifetime of over 4,000 charge cycles and the crucial possibility of performing partial charges and discharges – and the total absence of routine maintenance.”

Thanks to Flash Battery’s proprietary control system, the batteries stay balanced and efficient from every point of view. Even in the event of extraordinary operations, the high-powered electronic system – called the Flash Balancing System, currently patent pending – guarantees a balancing speed 20 times faster than other batteries. “The Flash Balancing System acts in active and passive mode with a much higher balancing power (20A) and not only during charging, but also in active mode during discharge,” explains Marco Righi, CEO of Flash Battery. “That way, we get a balancing process that is 20 times faster, guaranteeing maximum autonomy to our lithium batteries and guarding against any kind of downtime.”

Perfect matches, in the world of mobile technologies, are not very common. They often turn out to be promotional strategies deliberately aimed at a certain market in the field, or display significant limitations to their application, with hints of approximation that threaten the very credibility of the shared project. On the other hand, the partnership between Brennero Gru and Flash Battery is an exemplary case study in concrete and tangible technological success, applied to a new idea of lifting technology that finally crosses the still-uncertain frontiers into sustainability. Moving steadily towards the horizon of a genuine industrial revolution.

+ The safety of remote control

The Flash Data Center is software created by the R&D department of Flash Battery, designed to perform fully automatic self-diagnostics and predictive maintenance on each individual battery pack. The remote control verifies their operating parameters every day, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This artificial-intelligence system translates into the capacity to perform constant preventive maintenance, catching possible anomalies as they arise and guaranteeing a fast, targeted response in the event an intervention is needed. Every single report is automatically sent to the Flash Battery Service Center, which analyses usage, performance, and data on the functioning of each individual battery, or of fleets of the batteries currently in operation with Flash Battery’s clients in over 54 countries.