Demag AT lifts heat exchanger

27 January 2021

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Calabrese Autogru used its 160t Demag AC 160-5 all-terrain crane to lift a heat exchanger in the centre of Turin, Italy.

The city has narrow, winding streets, making it difficult for projects that require heavy equipment. For this job, the challenge of accessing the worksite was even bigger, as several vehicles were parked illegally along the access road, reducing the effective width of the road to less than three metres.

The Demag AC 160-5’s width is 2.75m. The crane operator manoeuvred the crane between the parked vehicles and reached the destination.

Once on site, the crane was able to lift the 7.2t heat exchanger using its 68m telescopic boom, without the need to attach an extension. “In that narrow road, setting up a main boom extension would have been both time-consuming and logistically challenging, and that would have resulted in significant extra costs. The AC 160-5 saved us from having to go down that route,” said managing director Alessandro Calabrese.

The hook block and slinging gear added one tonne to the weight of the load, which meant that our AC 160-5 had to lift a total of 8.2t. Under normal circumstances, this would not have been a problem for a machine in this class, but in the narrow Turin street, things were a bit different: the parked cars made it challenging for the AC 160-5 to extend its outriggers.

The sidewalk could not be used as a support either, as it did not have enough load capacity to support the pressure from the outriggers due to underground cavities. “This meant that we were only able to extend the outriggers to a limited degree and in an asymmetrical configuration. However, we were able to go ahead with the lift thanks to the IC-1 Plus crane control system, which precisely determined the maximum possible load, taking all relevant factors into account before giving us the green light,” Calabrese explained.

The all terrain crane lifted the 7.2t heat exchanger through a radius of 19m with the telescopic boom fully extended, and bring it to a height of 35m before setting it down at its intended location