The Bauma Innovation award is presented every three years by the VDMA, Bauma and leading German construction industry organizations. The Innovation Award is presented in five categories: Machinery; Components; Construction Process/Construction Work; Research; and Design.

In total 118 applications were received from Germany and abroad. The jury has now selected three new developments in each category to go forward to the final round. The awards will be presented in Munich the day before the start of Bauma.

The innovations range widely across the construction sector, including ideas such as a method for 3d printing in concrete to a fully autonomous, robotic, vibratory plate. Three innovations particularly stand out from the lifting industry: Tadano’s ‘Triple Boom’ system; a new crane fibre rope from Teufelberger; and a new energy storage system from Liebherr.

Visibly worn
Teufelberger’s SoLite promises a solution to one of the most commonly cited objections to the use of fibre ropes on cranes: the lack of clear discard criteria. Teufelberger says that the discard state of steel wire ropes can be clearly identified by damaged wires, changes in diameter, corrosion and other parameters. In case of fiber ropes it has not been possible so far to exactly determine this moment.

SoLite features a kernmantle design. The cover protects the load bearing core and is simultaneously a significant indicator for the discard state of the fiber rope. The cover consists of different high-tech fibers wearing at different rates, so that the point of discard can be determined reliably by visual inspection. Due to the use of three different fibers SoLite has a three-stage advance warning system. The combination of reliable and significant visual indicators and an integrated innovative condition monitoring in the core ensuring the electronic determination of the point of discard makes it possible for the crane operator to confidently identify when the rope has to be exchanged.

Take the power back Liebherr’s components division has developed a new all-in-one energy storage system, Liduro. Designed to simplify the addition of an energy storage system to heavy duty cranes and similar devices, this new powerful and flexible system for electric drive systems is based on double layer capacitors.

The compact, liquid-cooled complete system comprises all of the individual systems and assemblies needed, making integration in an application significantly easier. Liebherr says this makes Liduro a cost effective and sustainable system for increasing the productivity of electric drive systems and facilities.

Liduro is a complete system with 1.5 MJ of energy, which enables the accumulation and supply of 100 kW of power within 15 seconds with a reaction time of 500 µs.

Until now, the integration of energy storage units in new and existing mobile and stationary applications required extensive measures in terms of development and installation.

Aside from complicated mechanical implementation, it was necessary to bring together numerous individual systems, such as storage cells, DC/ DC controllers, cooling and management. This required a great deal of space and resulted in high costs. Thanks to the integration of all these components and systems in one energy storage unit, considerable time can be saved along with material costs for system integration and installation.

The Liebherr says its ‘connect & use’ system makes simple installation and operation possible. The user only has to make arrangements for the mechanical attachment and electrical wiring. He has the option of connecting the storage unit as a purely 2-pin device directly to a DC link of 530 V to 850 V as well as accumulating a defined amount of energy or supplying it again by using an additional communication interface. It is also possible to exchange all of the processing data via this interface.

Depending on the amount of energy that needs to be accumulated, up to ten energy storage units can be connected in parallel to enable an increase in storage capacity.

A version of the Liduro system has already been installed and tested on rubber tyre gantry crane. A fuel reduction of up to 40% was recorded, which equates to a saving of 700 litres per week. Used accordingly, a cost saving of up to €18,000 per year can be achieved. Among the other advantages is also the use of a smaller diesel engine. This no longer has to cover load peaks and can be maintained at an optimised operating point. This significantly reduces the emission of harmful substances.

Strength without suspense
This year’s Bauma will be the first time Tadano’s new Triple Boom system has been shown at an open event. The arrangement of three telescopic booms aims to replace unwieldy and time consuming to rig suspension systems.

Tadano says that the three telescopes give the whole system an especially high degree of flexural and torsional stiffness at all times.

The mass of the f steel is no longer distributed in just one main boom but instead between another two telescopes connected together by what we refer to as "partitions."

These tubes are further away from the center of the system’s cross-section, which makes the overall system much more stable than a conventional single telescopic boom system. The weight of the new Triple-Boom System is very similar to that of a conventional boom system, which was one of the key concerns of Tadano’s designers given the increasingly important issue of axle loads. That allows the new eight-axle crane to comply with the 12t per axle limit mandatory on many countries’ roads.

The Triple Boom System’s high flexural and torsional stiffness naturally benefits the lifting capacity profile of Tadano’s new eight-axle crane, the ATF 600G-8. Designer Andreas Hofmann says, "Our customers can look forward to a crane which can compete well with comparable models in its class. But it has the big advantage of providing much easier access to its lifting capacity because it has its boom suspension with it all the time, so to speak. We advise our customers to consider short and medium boom lengths especially carefully – lengths at which separate boom suspension systems cannot yet be effectively used. I can promise a few surprises in that department."

For crane operators, the elimination of boom suspension signifies the elimination of the time and expense of transporting, rigging, and operating boom suspension. But it also means the new eight- axle crane has a much smaller tail swing radius than comparable large cranes with suspended telescopic booms, making it more versatile on construction sites with limited space (such as in refineries, plants, and city centres).

What’s common to all these benefits is that they mean more efficiency for crane owners over the entire period of the crane’s use.