Details
Important note:
Masts and towers for more demanding areas require greater wall thickness, tube diameter, guy wires etc.
We handle with personalized requirements and prepare calculations directly for your demands.
Please read carefully our FAQ list which should solve many questions and will cause the appearance of others. :-)
Below specification of mast is designed for work in the 1st wind and icing zone, it is provided for 0.5 square meters of antennas at the top, the height range is max. 20 meters.
Each mast set contains:
- Aluminium Sections
- Lightning Protection Rod
- Flexible Coupling
- Stainless Hardware and Accessories (guy-wires with turnbuckles, shakles, nuts, screws)
Options:
- optional powder coating
- optional anodizing
Features:
- 250 mm mast width
- short sections easy to transport/install
- 0,5 sqm antenna load
- 5,3 kg section weight
- 6060/6063 aluminium grade
- fi 35x1,5 corner member
- fi 20x1,5 cross members horizontal
- fi 20x1,5 cross members diagonal
- welding technique TIG
- section joining: flanges, bolts M8x25, 9 pcs, stainless steel
- mast mounting: flexible coupling, 2 deegrees of freedom
- guy wires - stainless steel wire fi 4mm with accessories
- I level of guy wires - up to 4 m
- II level of guy wires - up to 8 m
- III level of guy wires - up to 12 m
- IV level of guy wires - up to 16 m
- V level of guy wires - up to 20 m
FAQ:
1. What information matter when we want you to make a mast for us?
Both masts and towers are quite resistant for vertical loads. Clients often ask us if a certain type of mast will carry some given weight of antennas in kilograms. The answer is nearly every time the same: yes sir. This is because for mast side loads are much more dangerous and influence the construction more. Side loads occur mainly because of the wind pressure on the antenna faces, and are directly proportional to their total surface. This is what counts.
For well designed mast the maximum Y axis deviation from wind pressure is 1:100 of its height at max wind speed in given wind zone. As you see for us the key information about your project is:
- location where the mast is going to be installed
- total surface of antennas you want to put on your newly bought truss.
2. What do I choose? Tower or mast?
Main difference between towers and masts is comfort of use and amount of space needed for installation. There is an economy to consider as well. In general towers are more expensive than masts at the same height, but take up much more space. So decision here is: do I buy/rent more land and save on the construction (cheaper mast) or do I buy more expensive tower and save on parcel size.
Some other factor is service cost. Masts need much more attention – frequent servicing is advised, guy wires tension must be regulated, u-bolts changed, and finally if something goes really bad – the chance is that mast will fall down. Towers are less human dependent. We check bolts once in couple of years and see if welds are still okay and that’s it. It’s rather unusual for the tower to fall down even if badly injured.
Towers (especially 1000mm width series with internal ladder) are quite comfy to use. Range of additions like safety platforms, outer platforms make service people life on the tower even nicer. This is not the case with masts, especially other than 1000mm width.
The final word here is about nature. In some regions (eg in Germany) you cannot use guy wired constructions due to risk for birds. Then tower might be the only possibility.
3. Eurocode in my place is different than in other regions, can you manage this?
Our static engineer can prepare projects and calculations both in German and/or English plus we can comply with all European so called „National Annexes”. We do posses most of the country specific norms, but if we do not, and you do – we will work on your set of documents (verify copyright before sharing). If you are not familiar with Eurocode idea – we can work with your design/engineering office, or legal office that handles the paperwork for you. Here are some basic facts about Eurocode.
4. Prices are fine, but how about transportation costs?
Cost of transportation is quite good if we ship many items at one time, and may be a problem when we send You just eg. one ballast mast. But yes, we do sell small quantities and single copies through the whole Europe. In some markets our base prices are so attractive that even relatively high transportation cost lets us keep our competitive edge.
Please feel free to contact us for transportation rate. We prepare dedicated shipping rate to every single order.
1. Small items (less than 2 meters in lenght, less than 15 kgs in weight) are sent with UPS services. Standard cost for one 2 meters section mast is around 56 Euros to most locations.
2. Mid sized loads are shipped via online dispatch markets. Usually it is around 200 – 300 Euros for a 20 meters mast or 16 meters tower. It varies on occasion and destination.
3. Big loads are shipped either by our own Van (we have VW Crafters 19 cubic meters + trailer that doubles the load) or by rented lorry (108 cubic meters or more). Our own transport costs around 0,7 Euro one way (Opole to your destination). Lorry is around 1-1,20 Euros.
5. My authorities demand TUV, GLS-SLV, ISO3834, ISO1090 and „CE” – can you provide it?
We provide each and every avliable proof of welding and production quality.
We do provide for all constructions welding process controll and production quality certificates including:
- EN ISO 3834-2 (TÜV Rh 19845200004)
- EN 1090-1 (TÜV Rh 00098)
- EN 1090-2 (TÜV Rh 00094)
- „CE” declaration
- GSI-SLV
6. I’m from Italy, England, France, Germany, you are located elsewhere – will it work?
Definitely yes. We are all EU now – so export/import is easier than ever. No VAT in export, unified invoices, PayPal or SWIFT payments mean we can exchange cash for goods as quickly and comfortably as in our local grocery market. Never tried to import? Now it’s a good time!
You do not feel comfortably to speak/write English? Then still we do have google translate. In extreme situation we can hire an interpreter of your language. Why not? Just let us know.
Our towers/masts work in Germany, Austria, France, Spain, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Sweden, Norway. Most of our clients stay with us for next/future projects.
We do static calculations in accordance to Eurocode and its local extension (annexes). So you may get all the paperwork tailor cut to your market reality.
7. How do I place guy wire anchors the right way?
In general it is advised to build masts symetrically – for 3 cornered trunks it would be 120 degrees each. Anchors sholud not be closer to the mast than half of its height. For example for a 50 meters high mast, anchors must be at least 25 meters apart from its axis.
8. Service of mast and tower, why should I bother?
Masts and towers, both aluminum and steel are constuctions of high risk. Damage may cost loss in property or even life, so it is good to service your mast before it breaks.
Aluminum masts are resistant to corrosion, but not so much to frost cracking. Once each year, in spring preferably, qualified personel should chceck for any signs of frost damage. Any cracks found shall be welded, some poles exchanged for new, and drainage patented. Our masts are well prepared to handle unwanted water, so less prone to frost cracking.
Second issue – guy wires. In older installations it was usual to use 3 mm wires. Most of them were zinc-plated years ago and now are very fragile because of corrosion. We recommend usage of stainless steel, good quality guy-wires 1×19 type, minumum 4 mm made in Europe – even for smallest masts.
Third thing is guy wire tension – this has to be corrected due to natural wire wear that results in wire lenght increase. Always chceck with mast producer what amount of tension shall be used. If possible measure it (some tensors have a gauge for this).
Aluminum towers are much more robust and require less work. All that has to be checked is: signs of frost cracking and corrosion to the bolts. Once in 5-10 years a verticality check is suggested (done by land surveyor). As gound under the towers settles unevenly the whole tower may change its centre of gravity. This can be changed with correction rings.
In case of steel constructions a anti-corrosion checek must be conducted, and any stained spots must be repaired. During u-bolts change (and other metal on metal components as well) we shall take under consideration electrochemical potential of used materials. High difference here may lead to amazingly quick corrosion that may be dangerous for the structure rigidity.
9. Why do I need separation crown?
The main reason to use separation crown is to separate antennas from each other accordingly to producer specifications. Antennas have backward radiation that may lead to interference and high noise bed. Because electromagnetic radiation force decreases with the square of the distance, even small separation is sufficient to improve the situation.
Second task of a separation crown is increasing the mast torsional stiffness (with additional set of guy wires). Truss masts are quite robust for vertical forces (inherit feature of a truss), average for horizontal forces (thanks to guy wires), and relatively non resistant for torsional forces (hence idea to help here). Twisting is most problematic during high winds and service jobs. This is especially problematic for radiolink, because it may interfere with or even break connection.