tower crane Archives

Liebherr acquires Hong Kong dealer

Liebherr Biberach has completed the acquisition of the Shriro tower crane division from the Shriro group in Hong Kong.

The deal is an asset based transaction and includes 24 tower cranes, with 20 sales and service staff, all of whom have transferred to the new Liebherr distribution operation. The business will report into Liebherr-Singapore which will now be responsible for the Liebherr tower crane business throughout Asia.

The Shriro Group has had close ties with Liebherr since 1978 when, under the name Peninsula Engineering & Equipment, it became the official Liebherr dealer for its tower cranes in Hong Kong and Macao. Liebherr will now run this sales and rental business itself, while Shriro will focus on its core business – international trade in consumer goods. No financial details of the transaction have been disclosed.

Dominique Tasch, managing director of Liebherr Biberach said: “The crane specialists are superbly trained and have already completed courses at our manufacturing plant in Biberach. That means that the transition will be very smooth and existing contracts and obligations will be met without any restrictions. The takeover will enable Liebherr to place a permanent footprint on the Asian market as a manufacturer.”

“We are particularly focussing on project business and special building sites. Liebherr can provide excellent services for complex special projects, using the expertise of its engineers from the ‘Tower Crane Solutions’ Business Unit. We work with the customer to find a safe, economical solution to technically complicated building projects.”

Max Bögl builds Lahn Valley Bridge

German construction company Max Bögl used six Potain tower cranes to help with the construction of a new bridge on the A3 main road near Limburg, Germany.

The cranes were delivered by Max Bögl’s subsidiary company, Max Bögl Transport & Geräte. On site are three flat top Potain MDT 222 with tip heights up to 76.2 metres and operating radius up to 60 m. Two of them are mobile and one has been erected stationary, a spokesperson said.

Also on site is a stationary Potain MD 150 with a tip height of 29.8 m and radius of 55 m, and a Potain MD 235 J12 with a tip height of 35.4 m and a radius of 54.8 m. A flat top Potain MDT 268A J12 with a tip height of 63.1 m and a radius of 60 m has also been erected and is being rented from Manitowoc’s fleet for 15 months.

The construction of the new Lahn Valley Bridge also includes rerouting the freeway and installing a noise barrier.

“The foundations of the new bridge are bored pile foundations, but the abutment head will be poured, so two auxiliary piers are needed for this,” a company spokesperson said. “They will be erected by a slip form method next to the future structural piers and after completion of the abutment head, two shoring structures will be built on it.”

The new road is being built in both directions. Once the track towards Köln (Cologne) has been completed, the Potain cranes and auxiliary piers will be used to construct the second bridge’s superstructure. For the track towards Frankfurt, the cranes will be moved on to a rail system.

Herbert Wieseckl, department manager for structural engineering technology at Max Bögl Transport & Geräte, said, “Due to the special job site conditions here with a busy freeway and a railway at the south shore, all cranes had to be equipped with an operating limit system.”

Manfred May, site manager in Limburg, said, “At such tip heights, the load duty cycle performance is important. Therefore, the cranes have been equipped with the high performance 75 LVF hoist and all cranes have a system for rescue from height. Each crane operator has been trained for this to ensure safety. Also, concrete pumps can only be utilised up to a certain construction height so some concreting work was done by the cranes. With Potain cranes, we could pour up to 18 cubic metres of concrete an hour. That’s quite an accomplishment.”

The old Lahn Valley Bridge was built in 1964 and is about 400 m long and almost 60 m tall. It is used by more than 100,000 vehicles a day. Once the new bridge has been built, the old Lahn River Bridge will be demolished.

Crane comes down in Moscow

Exceptionally strong winds are blamed for the collapse of a tower crane in central Moscow yesterday.

The crane looks like a fairly dated bottom slewing luffing tower crane, its triangular section tower and jib blew over the back of the machine base, with part of it apparently striking the rear end of a passing car. However no one was injured in the incident, which occurred in Testovskaya Ulitsa in the business district. More modern top slewers nearby were unaffected by the winds.

Custom Liebherr towers for Shwe Taung in Myanmar

Myanmar contractor Shwe Taung Development has taken delivery of three Liebherr 280 EC-H 12 tower cranes.

The first of the three cranes was supplied to help with the construction of the Twin Centro development in Yangon, Myanmar. The location of the project site meant that the crane needed a shortened jib, which was designed especially for the project, a company spokesperson said.

The Twin Centro development, on Baho Road in Sanchaung Township, is made up of a 16 storey apartment building, complete with a pool, recreation centre and garden. Shwe Taung is the owner and developer of the project.

Mike Tay, sales manager at Liebherr Singapore’s tower crane division, said, “The development is on a particularly busy road, opposite one of Yangon’s leading hospitals, and the twin tower blocks are located very close to the road. Shwe Taung asked us to modify the jib to prevent it over-sailing the road.

“The standard configuration for this model is a jib that extends to a maximum 75 m and, although they needed the maximum load lift of 12 tonnes, they required a shorter jib. Together with our partner, Octagon International Services Co Ltd, responsible for promoting Liebherr tower cranes and providing aftersales and training, we found the ideal solution for the site by providing a jib with a maximum 40 m length and a tip load of 7.6 tonnes.”

As a result of the changes, the maximum load of 12 tonnes will be handled in 2-fall reeving and can be taken out to 26 m, Tay explained.

The crane has been positioned between the two towers, allowing it to service all the lifting requirements for both towers. The project is due for completion in late 2015.

1,000m high tower crane

Tower cranes are being installed in what will be the world’s first building to reach – and exceed – 1,000 metres.

Construction on the Kingdom Tower in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, began earlier this year, and at over a kilometre high it will dwarf the current highest building – the 828 metre high Burj Khalifa.

Six luffing jib tower cranes will be used on the building, including three Liebherr 280 HC-L 16/28 and a 357 HC-L 18/32 Litronic with jib lengths of between 40 and 45 metres. The maximum loads to be lifted will be between 11 and 12 tonnes at 35 metres radius.

The three 280 HC-L will be anchored to the outer sides of the building on several cantilevered platforms, and reach hook heights of around 400 metres, while the 357 HC-L will climb all the way to the top, possibly creating a new record for the highest crane.

Liebherr to build on Indian tower crane success

A central attraction on Liebherr’s bC India stand is the company’s 85 EC-B 5i flat-top tower crane. The model is manufactured at the company’s factory in Pune, India and has been designed for the specific needs of the local market. The model is only available in India.

The unit has a maximum capacity of 5 tonnes and can lift 1.3 tonnes at the end of a 50 m maximum length jib. However, it sits on a footprint of just 1.2 x 1.2 m, and the company says this combination of high capacity on a small cross-section makes it ideal for the confined construction sites often found in Indian cities.

The 85 EC-B 5i has been manufactured in Pune since 2012, and Liebherr said it was developing a second crane at the factory for the Indian market, based on the success of this first model.

At present, a number of 85 EC-B 5i Flat-Top cranes are at work in India, and the company said key locations included Pune, Delhi, Mangalore and Mumbai, where the ability to climb upwards inside as well as outside under-construction buildings was an advantage.

In Noida, an 85 EC-B 5i is currently in use as internal climbing crane on the “Amadeus” project where a building with 36 floors is due for completion by the end of 2016. In the final stage of the project, the 85 EC-B 5i will reach a hook height of more than 130 m.

Another project is Panchshil Towers in Wagholi, Pune. This residential building project covers an area of 17 acres. The 85 EC-B 5i is used as internal climbing crane for works at the highest building and will reach its maximum hook height of some 110 m.