The company, which recently finished a new crawler crane proving hall, expects to produce 1,400 cranes this year – some 1,250 ATs and 150 crawlers.

During the day, the company had displayed its entire range of ATs, with booms extended, in the livery of Maxikraft, Saller, Scholpp, G&R, Felbermayr, Nordjysk Lift, Mediaco, Prangl, Ainscough, Davide Rubino, Al Faris, Eisele, FAL Industrie and Convoi Europe, among others. Factory staff drove – occasionally in both directions – around a central track during the mobile crane demos. A large crawler offered rides up a hundred metres in a man-basket. Two ATs tandem-lifting the LTM 1040-2.1 raised their powered luffing jibs under load. Also on show were the two recently-launched truck cranes.

“Globally, all markets are evolving and some are expanding strongly, for example the Middle East and India, not forgetting Eastern Europe, the USA and Brazil as well. And the prospects for 2007 are positive in view of our many projects and healthy order books,” said Hans-Georg Frey, Ehingen joint MD with Ulrich Hamme.

“Sadly, the healthy order book situation does mean lengthy lead times, which we cannot completely eliminate despite major capital expenditure to expand production. Component bottle-necks, particularly for tyres, mean that we cannot currently increase production any further.”

The star of the show was probably the recently-uprated LR 11350 crawler crane, the company’s biggest, which dominated the factory’s proving ground. In true industry fashion, the crane lifted another crane, the company’s recently-launched tele crawler, the LTR 1100. A pre-production version with 1,250t capacity is now working in China.

The crawler can reach 1,350t (1,488 US tons) maximum capacity with 60m (200ft) main boom with derricking and ballast trailer at radius of 12m (40ft). The crane can also be specced with a suspended ballast system, as used on the LR 1350/1, out to a radius of 25m. The crawler can be specced with main boom and luffing fly jib to offer a maximum height under hook of 223m (730ft). With a derrick, main boom lengths are up to 150m. None of the crane’s sections weigh more than 45t or are wider than 3.5m, the company claims, although riggers will need to remove the crawler caterpillar tracks for transport. A 640kW/870hp six-cylinder Cummins engine drives the crane.

“Crane operators and the industry in general want bigger and bigger crawler cranes without sacrificing flexibility – the development of the LR 11350 was our response to this demand,” Hamme said. “The ongoing consolidation of a complete, powerful LR range, similar to that already achieved with the LTM crane, will be one of the principal goals of our short- and medium-term development planning activities.”

The LTM 1130-5.1

After dinner, there was a dramatic evening launch of Liebherr’s new five-axle AT. Stage smoke parted to reveal the LTM 1130-5.1. The crane’s 60m boom makes it the tallest in the 100t lifting capacity class from Liebherr (there are now six five-axle ATs). It lifts 100t in 360° with 9t of counterweight. Maximum rated capacity 130t (143 US tons) is only over the rear with five times as much counterweight.

With its nominal 9t (10 US tons) of counterweight, the LTM 1130-5.1 weighs 60t (66 US tons), or 12t on each of its five axles. This loading makes it able to travel with its counterweight on many countries’ roads. With only 9t, it can lift 7.4t at 20m with boom halfway extended, for example, almost half of the 14.7t rating of the crane with full 42t counterweight. The light-rigged crane suffers more in long reaches. For example, its maximum rated outreach is 1t at 40m with the boom half-way extended, compared with a maximum rated load of 1.8t at 56m with fully-extended boom and full counterweight.

Fly jib options include a 10.8m to 19m-swing away, which can be increased by up to two 7m lattice extension sections.

Turning radius is 10.4m measured from the end of the operator cab, or 13.2m from the end of the swingaway boom. Ballast swing radius is 4.2m. The crane can lift loads with outriggers set at half-way – width 5m – or at full 7.5m width. The rear axle is steerable, depending on speed. The carrier stops with air-operated disc brakes. The company argues these have better performance than drum brakes, last longer, and can be serviced more easily.

Carrier power comes from a Liebherr six-cylinder engine that produces 370kW (503hp) at 1,900 rpm and is connected to a 12-speed ZF AS-Tronic gearbox with standard intarder. The four-cylinder superstructure engine generates 145kW (197hp) at 1,800 rpm behind an operator’s cab that can be tilted back 20°.