CranesBlog | Page 44 of 45 | Mobile cranes and Crawler cranes

Crane accident in Bergen

The boom of a loader crane collapsed yesterday dropping a skip onto two vehicles in Bergen, Norway – in a street close to the city’s main shopping centre.

The crane, a Fassi owned by Svanco Transport, was lifting the skip down from the fifth floor of a building with a fully extended seven section boom and four section jib when the second hydraulic boom section either snapped or came out of the lower section. Both the boom and skip came down onto the two vehicles, one of which was completely crushed. The drivers had to be cut from the vehicles but fortunately only suffered minor injuries.

An investigation is currently underway to determine the cause of the incident which is thought to have been captured on CCTV.

A guy who lives in Bergen, said: “I have to say, that it seems to be very common around Bergen to use loader cranes to lift and lower items onto the roof of buildings during maintenance or refurbishment. The work often takes place above busy areas, with little or no coning-off or restrictions to traffic or pedestrian access during the lift.”

Liebherr sells harbour cranes in the Middle East

Liebherr has won several orders for LHM mobile harbour cranes from the Middle East. These include two LHMs, a reachstacker and the first LiSIM LHM 550 simulator. This year more than 40 mobile harbour cranes have been delivered making a total of well over 300 LHMs in the region.

A first was the order for the new LiSIM mobile harbour crane simulator for Saqr Port in Ras Al Kaimah, United Arab Emirates. The resulting increase in operator skills allows for safe and productive crane operation in the real world and naturally boosts productivity. Saqr Port has opted for the classroom solution which can be easily integrated into existing training centres.

Saqr Port has ordered an LHM 550, reinforcing its existing mobile harbour crane fleet. The new crane is equipped with Liebherr’s Pactronic system for more fuel efficient bulk handling. The LHMs can also be used for container handling and general cargo operation if necessary – just by an easy exchange of the lifting attachment. The new crane and simulator will be commissioned in the first quarter of 2014.

To revitalise the Port of Maqal in Iraq, NAWAH Port Management has purchased an LHM 180 and a Liebherr LRS 645 Reachstacker. The LHM 180 is designed for container handling as well as for safe and reliable general cargo operation having a maximum lift of 64 tonnes.

Mobile tower crane over in Netherlands

A self-erecting mobile tower crane has gone over in a shopping street in Nieuwegein, on the south side of Utrecht in the Netherlands, no one is hurt and damage is relatively minor.

The incident occurred just before 8:00 this morning and thankfully the operator was on the ground, and not in the elevating operators cab. He was apparently in the process of lifting materials onto the roof at the time.

The rear outrigger of the crane, a Spierings owned by Nederhof crane rental, punched through the block street surface into a void or soft foundation material.

Fatal crane collapse at Sao Paulo World Cup stadium

Two people age 40 and 42, have died, following the collapse of a crawler crane at Sao Paulo’s Arena Corinthians stadium which is due to host the opening ceremony for the 2014 football World Cup.

The boom of the crane, a 1,350 tonne capacity Liebherr LR11350 owned by Brazil’s largest crane company Locar, appears to have gone over the back of the machine breaking the superstructure connections and landing on the roof of the stadium.

The crane which was working with suspended derrick mast counterweight was specifically brought in to install the large roof structure.

Below is a video of the fatal crane collapse at Sao Paulo.

[youtube url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7goCgk0JWE”]

All terrain crane overturned in Germany

A 750 tonne All Terrain crane overturned yesterday on a wind farm in Germany as it was moving – partially rigged – between turbine installation areas.

The crane, a new Liebherr LTM 1750-9.1 owned by Cologne based crane specialist Colonia, had already completed its work on two turbines at the wind farm in Düren-Echtz – between Aachen and Cologne – and was moving along one of the wind farm roads to the third turbine, when it went over.

Local police say that a strong gust of wind caught the crane, but this was most likely combined with the uneven ground at the point where it went over. The crane was said to have overturned slowly, which suggests that some of the wheels had left the main part of the road. It was rigged with an extension and jib and had most of its counterweight in place.

The operator was rescued from his cab by the emergency services and was taken to hospital suffering from shock. No one else was hurt in the incident, although the crane which was delivered in July will have sustained some serious damage.

TYHI showcases 500t All Terrain crane

Chinese heavy engineering company Taiyuan Heavy Industry (TYHI) showcases its 500 tonne TZM500 All Terrain crane last month.

The new crane features a seven section 84 metre main boom with superlift guying system and is aimed at wind turbine erection, petrochemical, nuclear power and commercial construction work.

The company, part of the TZ group, is best known for its range of heavy industrial overhead cranes, although it has also built one or two large crawler cranes and recently launched a 6,400 tonne four tower gantry crane for lifting reactor vessels. It also produces large shovels for the mining industry.

The company has little to no experience with All Terrain cranes but showed off the prototype to employees on October 12th. It already has a 660 tonne crawler crane on test and claims to have begun manufacturing a 1,200 tonne telescopic crawler crane – the TZT1200 – and plans a wheeled version, the TXM1200.

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