Liebherr’s mobile strategy

Roughly 20 years ago, Liebherr decided to change its strategy on the mobile crane market by focusing its product range mainly on LTM all terrains and LR crawler cranes and discontinuing its rough terrain LTL crane production.

Up to that point, the manufacturer produced approximately 430 units of rough terrains in the range of 25–80t. Since then, it has expanded its product range of all terrain and crawler cranes, which currently consists of 38 different crane types in multiple configurations.

“So considering our present footprint in the industry, the rather constant outlook from a global economic perspective and the insistent appeal of our customers to re-enter into rough terrain crane business, we looked deeper into this topic,” says managing director sales at Liebherr- Werk Ehingen Christoph Kleiner.

During Bauma 2013, Liebherr started to discuss ‘rough terrain cranes for Liebherr’ with its key customers all around the world.

“Clearly, rough terrain cranes are not as highly sophisticated as LTM cranes and the rough terrain crane world market looks quite different from the all terrain market. 50% of rough terrain cranes sold are marketed in North America, mainly by American-based manufacturers,” says Kleiner.

Kleiner says when the company was coming up with a new design, it had in mind its suitability for the existing strong rough terrain market.

“The following items have to be matched as well: The right crane size, all for a competitive price, meeting or outperforming present main technical requirements, proven boom systems, boom lengths as well as ease of use, maintenance and, above all, operational safety.”

Liebherr has decided to launch rough terrain cranes in the 90t and 100t classes. The LRT 1090-2.1 and LRT 1100-2.1 will be unveiled to the public at the ConExpo in Las Vegas in March 2017.

Dr Ulrich Hamme, managing director of construction and development at Liebherr-Werk Ehingen, says: “The technology and technological basis of the LRT cranes has of course been derived from the vast Liebherr mobile crane pool of experience; yet is very specifically tailored to roughterrain cranes.”

The vehicle and turntable design of the two cranes is structurally almost identical. They vary in boom length, telescope technology, ballast weight and lifting capacity.

The 100t version has a 50m long telescopic boom with a simple ‘Telematik’ telescope system. A 14t counterweight provides high stability. The lifting capacity of the larger LRT crane is approximately 15% greater than that of the 90t version.

The LRT 1090-2.1 has a 47m long telescopic boom. Its telescope system consists of two-stage hydraulic cylinder with mechanical rope extension. As in the 100t version, boom extension can be preselected easily, based on two different telescope paths on the main boom. 12t counterweights are located on the turntable.

“These two crane types should meet all requirements on rough terrain cranes in their class; from off-road pick & carry rough terrain cranes, up to and including flexible industrial cranes in large industrial plants,” says Hamme.

All rough terrain cranes are equipped with sliding beam monitoring as standard. The support state, on tyres or support bases, is detected and set automatically. The counterweight attachment to the turntable is detected and monitored.

The customary standard 360° load chart tables are supplemented with the Liebherr VarioBase support-dependent load capacities developed for the LTM cranes.

Hamme says this improves not only the crane’s lifting capacity, but also its support flexibility and protection against overturning.

VarioBase allows each individual outrigger beam to be extended to arbitrary lengths. The crane work is controlled by the load moment limiter within the LICCON controller, which calculates the maximum load capacities precisely for the current situation.

“This prevents accidents by human error during the assembly process and when hoisting loads. VarioBase also provides greater flexibility on site. As a result of the increased lifting capacities when hoisting over the supports, the crane can hoist loads normally reserved for the next higher crane class,” says Liebherr.

The crane cabin is 220mm wider than other standard cabins on the market. It can be tilted backwards to provide greater comfort when hoisting loads to great heights.

The two newly-developed LRT crane models meet global safety standards and comply with all global regulations such as the US standard ANSI B30.5, The European EN 13000, Australian Standards (AS) and the Russian GOST standard.

Both crane models are powered by a Cummins diesel engine which meets all current emissions regulations. The engine develops 194kW and supplied a maximum torque of 990Nm. A six-speed powershift transmission from Dana and large 29.5 R25 tyres guarantee the required off-road capability for the cranes.

Their maximum speed is 25 km/h (15 mph). Different steering programmes provide a high degree of manoeuvrability.

Kleiner says that cost targeting was vital in the process of developing these cranes, in order for them to be price competitive.

Mobile crane market

Kleiner says the strongest RT markets at the moment are the US and Middle East, with the weakest one being Europe.

In terms of the overall mobile crane market, he says the most important market for Liebherr remains Germany, even though it is slightly lower compared to previous years. Further stable markets are the US and Central America, but a “slow cool down” is visible.

“We still see a North/South divide in Europe, although first signs of recovery are noticeable in the South. The Middle East remains solid. Otherwise we have to face slow markets in important regions like South America, especially in Brazil, and also in the CIS-region, especially Russia,” says Kleiner. Liebherr sees strongest demand for all-terrains in the four-five axle class.

“Due to our fairly new LTM 1300-6.2 we could also participate better in the six axle class, while the two-three axle class remained solid. For the large cranes above six axles, we registered a kind of saturation.”

Kleiner says the demand for lattice type jib cranes remains strong, with only the 1,000t class recording a slight slow-down. The remaining crane types like telescopic crawler crane LTRs and truck-mounted LTFs have a solid demand.

“So from our today’s point of view, we expect an ongoing sideward movement to our Liebherr mobile crane business as well as for our industry, probably slightly below this year’s level,” he adds.

Liebherr has expanded its business model of direct sales and service in the major markets over these years, closed white spots on the worldwide map and upgraded existing branches.

This month it opens its latest service station in Dammam, Saudi Arabia. It is also renovating a service station in Berlin.