Liebherr’s 1,000-Tonne LR 11000 Crawler Crane Future-Proofs German Crane Hire Firm’s Wind Turbine Operations
Crane rental and heavy haulage company Wasel GmbH of Bergheim, Germany, recently bought its fifth and most powerful lattice boom crawler crane for wind turbine and industrial projects. The 1,000-tonne (1,200-U.S.-ton) Liebherr LR 11000 is known for its high hook height of 220 metres (720 feet), as well as its folding V-frame and VarioTray detachable ballast system. The crane is available with special systems for wind power applications in the U.S. and Europe.
“The lifting capacity requirements in industry and for public infrastructure projects are on the rise,” says Wasel Managing Director Matthias Wasel. “The towers for wind turbines are also increasing in height all the time. That is why we decided to buy Liebherr’s 1,000-t crane. It means that we are absolutely ready for the next generation of wind turbines.”
Job One
Wasel’s first task for its massive new Liebherr LR 11000 was to assemble a wind turbine with a hub height of 170 m (558 ft) in Coesfeld, North Rhine-Westphalia.
“The powerful SL10 boom was an important criterion for the LR 11000. And we need all its power here at this wind farm,” says Wasel Technical Director Julian Schmidt. “One hundred and thirty-six tonnes (150 U.S. t) including the hook block and fastening equipment had to be hoisted to an extreme height of 170 m with a radius of 29 m.”
Wasel set up the LR 11000 with the optional SL10DF2BV wind turbine system. This gave the crane 162 m (531.5 ft) of main boom, 12 m (39 ft) of fixed jib, 210 t (231.5 U.S. t) of turntable ballast, 90 t (99 U.S. t) of central ballast, and 450 t (496 U.S. t) of derrick ballast.
The LR 11000’s hydraulically adjustable V-Frame with VarioTray ballast system assisted in the work. V-Frame gives the crane an infinitely adjustable ballast radius range from 13 to 30 m (42.7 to 98.4 ft), making a rigid ballasting system no longer necessary with the boom at a long radius.
VarioTray is a small, detachable ballast pallet that makes it easy to add or subtract counterweight as needed rather than slowly stacking and unstacking ballast slabs. The LR 11000 only needs its large ballast pallet to raise and lower the lattice boom.
“The benefits of the V-Frame and VarioTray when working with suspended ballast in the wind industry were clearly demonstrated during this very first job,” Schmidt says. A 220-t Liebherr LTR 1220 telescopic boom crawler crane assisted with the wind turbine assembly.
Not Just A Liebherr Customer
Besides wind turbine work, the LR 11000 can be adapted to port handling as well as refinery, bridge, and construction tasks. The 670-horsepower (500-kilowatt) crane can attain a maximum radius of 184 m (603 ft). To reduce travel costs, it breaks down to a width of just 3.5 m (11.5 ft) and a height of 3.2 m (10.5 ft) for transport.
“We are impressed by Liebherr products, particularly its crawler cranes,” says Wasel’s other Managing Director, Thomas Wasel. In June 2021, the family firm received a 700-t (770 -U.S.-t) LR 1700 1.0, Liebherr’s latest crawler crane model. Wasel has approximately 140 Liebherr mobile and crawler cranes in its fleet.
“The quality of both the products and Liebherr’s service is top-class,” says Wasel. “It is, of course, also a benefit to stick with a single manufacturer for large cranes in terms of operation, transport, and maintenance.”
Besides its hoisting and transport services, Wasel is also a Liebherr dealer. The company is globally known for its more than 400 Liebherr tower cranes.
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Source: Liebherr