Liebherr crane with remote control

At its 2018 customer days in Ehingen, Liebherr presented a prototype for controlling the LTC 1050-3.1 by remote. However, it did not control the crane movements as they have long been part of standard operations. The new feature enables the whole vehicle to be controlled from outside the cabin. Liebherr said it enhances safety and convenience because the crane operator has a better view of the problem areas on the site.

Wolfgang Salgert, managing director of Salgert, was one of the first people to order this new technology. “I have been looking for a way of controlling our LTC compact cranes by remote for many years. They perform 70% of their work in constricted industrial buildings. This means that we face situations every day where the crane operator cannot see the whole picture. RemoteDrive enables the crane operator to stand in front of the crane and manoeuvre it safely through constricted access routes”, said Salgert.

Many owners have told the Ehingen-based crane specialist that they could really use a remote control on their cranes several times per week. “It makes sense when moving the crane on the site, for manoeuvring on constricted sites and for driving the crane inside industrial buildings. And the vast majority of them also regard the remote control for their mobile crane as a better idea than camera systems because they only supply an image of the constricted area to the cab. RemoteDrive takes the operator to areas with difficult access,” Liebherr said.