German rental firm Hartinger is working with wind turbine manufaturer Enercon to build the Saterland wind farm near Papenburg, in Saxony. The two companies have sped up work by splitting the towers’ erection between them, with Enercon placing the first 30m of the towers and Warburg-based Hartinger completing the final sections to reach a height of 105m.
Both companies chose Liebherr’s giant telecrawler, the LTR 11200, for the project. The German manufacturer said that the flat Emsland jobsite, with well constructed 5m wide tracks, is ideal for the crane. Traveling on a carrier 4.8m wide chassis, the 510t gross vehicle weight crane can often move between installation sites fully configured: the telescopic boom can be retracted, keeping the centre of gravity low and allowing the crane to travel with its 54m luffing jib and 182t of ballast in place.
Every time the crane is moved like this, Liebherr says, three or four days are saved that might otherwise be spent rigging a more traditional lattice boom crawler. Using two of the cranes together, with different telescopic boom configurations, also speeds the job.
The LTR 11200 operated by the wind turbine manufacturer Enercon is responsible for the erection of the bottom section. This crane has a seven-section telescopic boom and a short erection jib, which can hoist concrete components weighing up to 128t. When the structure is over around 30m high it is joined by Hartinger’s crane. This has a three-section telescopic boom and a luffing lattice jib. This configuration is sufficient to erect the turbine towers up to a height of 105m, hoisting maximum weights of 70t. If a single crane were to erect the complete concrete tower on its own, its luffing jib would have to be erected and dismantled continuously and its ballasting would require constant changes.
Wind Energy Equipment Review
