Kobelco launches 550t crawler

27 November 2006

Kobelco is testing a 550t capacity crawler for a planned launch at the beginning of 2007. “Our concept is to do a complete 600,000kW power plant job, windmills, petro-chemical plants and oil refineries,” Fujiki Daisuke, product planning and marketing manager, told Cranes Today at Shanghai’s Bauma China show.

Kobelco SL6000

The SL6000 lifts a maximum of 550t with super heavy lift boom. The maximum boom+jib length with optional luffing jib is 168 m. Specced with 30m standard boom, it can lift 300t with 180t of standard counterweight and weighs in at about 420t.

The company expects to sell the first unit to a European customer soon, although it is planning to sell the crane in Asia, the Middle East, USA, and Japan as well. It will produce more than ten units when it begins production in 2007, according to Daisuke.

The crane will fill the gap in between CKE4000C (350t) and 7650 (650t), Kobelco’s largest.

“Kobelco is famous for producing large crawler cranes, particularly in Asia,” said Daisuke, where transport regulations are more flexible than in the US or Europe. But the company has engineered the crane to break down into sections for different transport scenarios. The main machine breaks into a 65t piece with car-body attached. With car-body taken off, it weighs 45t. With the backmast removed, by what the company describes as an easy-detachment system, it weighs 32t.

The crane is poweredï„¸ by a Tier-3 compliant Hino E13C-UV engine that generates 320kW at 2,000 rpm.

Kobelco SL6000