After three years, 31000 gets to work in Korea

Manitowoc has built two units of the crane. One was ordered by Crane Rental Corporation in the USA, and is still on track to be used by that customer. The other was due to be sold to Bulldog Erectors, but that deal fell through.

Now, Korean rental firm Chunjo has put the crane to work at a Posco E&C plant in Gwangyang, South Korea, where new technology is making liquefied gas from low-grade coal. There, the crane is making 12 lifts for three of the plant's vessels and is setup with 55m of boom and a 60m luffing jib.

Chunjo said that Manitowoc's 31000's Variable Position Counterweight (VPC) system, which ranges from 8m fully retracted to 29m fully extended, was of particular interest to the company. The VPC minimizes the crane's footprint and the ground preparation required.

As part of the deal, Chunjo also purchased three 600t Manitowoc 18000 crawler cranes to add to its fleet. When working with the MAX-ER attachment, the 18000's capacity is boosted to 750t, with a 97.5m (320 ft) boom. Chunjo owns more Manitowoc 18000s than any other company in the world, as well as owning more Grove rough-terrain cranes than any other in the Far East.

The crane crawls on four corner-mounted crawler tracks. The upper is too big to fit on a turntable bearing, so it rotates on a multiple-piece roller path system with 12m diameter. The crane is powered by dual 447kW (600HP) Cummins diesel engines. It transports in 85 truck loads and assembles in 10 days.

Chang Hwan Jang, Chunjo's chairman, said: "The Manitowoc 31000 has a tremendous capacity and we will be able to use it for heavy lifts on a diverse number of projects," he said. "But the real advantage is the crane's VPC, which will keep the footprint of the crane manageable, giving us more space to work on the job site."