200 tonne lift for MaxiKraft’s new crawler crane

15 July 2022

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The second lift for crane and heavy haulage contractor MaxiKraft’s new Liebherr LR 11000 crawler crane was a 200 tonne crane girder at a steel casting plant.

A girder needed to be repurposed as a weather guard at a steel plant in Duisburg, Germany. MaxiKraft was commissioned for the job and transported its LR 11000 600km to the jobsite from its previous job erecting wind turbines. It took over 30 heavy haulage vehicles to move the crane.

The 200 tonne girder was from a former casting gantry crane and measured 40 metres in length. It had been used to transport hot liquid steel inside the plant.

In constricted space conditions, the LR 11000 was set up with 50 tonnes of central ballast, 170 tonnes of slewing platform ballast and 320 tonnes of derrick ballast within four days in its SL11DBV configuration with a 102 metre main boom and a 42 metre derrick boom.

The hoist was completed on a Saturday so that the crane could then be dismantled again from the Monday and the steel plant could quickly restart operations.

“The delivery of the crane components was a logistical master class,” said crane operator Marcel Kallwass. “Things were very tight, particularly when setting up the crane. But everything went very well. The LR 11000 is a fantastic crane. I’ve operated them all, from the LR 1600/2 to the LR 11350, and also large machines from other manufacturers.”

An SPMT module vehicle manoeuvred the colossal steel component from the preparation area to the crane where the LR 11000 picked it up on four giant shackles and then delicately placed the 200 tons at its assembly position at a lofty height. The 1000 tonne crane even had to move a few metres with the massive load on its hook. Thick excavator mats had been put in position specially to distribute the load.

The old crane girder has been modified for its new purpose as a weather guard. Over the next few months, a mobile safety wall will be attached to it to provide the open building which houses the extrusion casting system with better protection from wind and rain.