- The training center is located at a major connecting hub in South America, which connects technicians across Latin America with training programs on Manitowoc’s cranes and systems.
- The new space is equipped with modern simulators of cranes systems and circuits, which eliminate the risk of damage to real cranes traditionally used during training exercises.
Manitowoc has opened a new Crane Care training center in the city of Santana de Parnaíba, which is located in the metropolitan area of São Paulo, a major South American transportation hub. The move will provide easier access to Manitowoc’s training programs for technicians across Latin America.
The new training center is equipped with modern simulators, which enable trainees to deepen their knowledge on hydraulic, electrical and pneumatic principles; practice troubleshooting procedures; and learn basic lessons on software programing, all with the goal of giving clients quick and efficient service. The use of simulators helps technicians to practice a wide range of actions on the different operational systems found in crane models in use in Latin America, such as EPIC, Canbus and Manitowoc’s own Crane Control System (CCS).
“Since it is not possible to bring the simulators to our customers’ facilities, we have to use cranes provided by them on local training classes. But it is not an ideal situation because the owners have to take a crane off the job for use in the training program, and they lose money for every day that the cranes are not working,” said Keith Opperman, training manager at Manitowoc. “The new training center eliminates this cost while removing the risk of damage to the cranes.”
Opperman also explained that the training sessions at the new center are equivalent to the ones provided in the Manitowoc factories, and the trainees in São Paulo also receive Manitowoc Crane Care qualification at the end of each session.
The first classes at the new training center took place last year, when technicians who work for the Mexican distributor Sitsa had two weeks of intense training on CCS, an operating system present in Manitowoc’s most recent crane models. The trainees learned details of the system and practiced troubleshooting procedures specifically for crawler cranes. Although there are not many cranes in Latin America that use the CCS system yet, this number is starting to increase.
“This new training center facilitates the logistics to train more people across the region, since it is located in the city of São Paulo, a destination that provides much easier access than Passo Fundo, south of Brazil, where the former training center used to be located,” said Cristian Galaz, vice president of sales for South America.
Three other courses on EPIC and Canbus – the most common crane operating systems in Latin America – took place at the new Crane Care center in São Paulo last year, and two more took place in the first quarter of 2018. Training sessions are available in Portuguese, Spanish and English to meet the demand in Latin America.
There are six Crane Care training centers in the world equipped with simulators of the operational systems used by Manitowoc mobile and crawler cranes. They are in Brazil (São Paulo), the United States, Portugal, Dubai, Singapore and Germany.