Right tracks

With the market depressed, competition among the crawler crane manufacturers is fiercer than ever. Sales in Asia, so low for the past few years, are finally beginning to pick up slightly, led by growing demand in China, now the world's biggest market for construction machinery. In Europe, interest in the benefits of modern hydraulic crawler cranes appears to be continuing to grow and sales remain steady, although whether there is room in the market for Manitowoc to gain the kind of presence it is seeking remains uncertain. In North America, however, after a period of sustained growth in demand on the back of which Manitowoc was able to grow in strength to such an extent that it could acquire both Potain and Grove the market has diminished miserably. Overall, because of the collapse of the North American market, the crawler crane manufacturers will not look back on 2003 as a happy year.

Despite the gloomy business scenario, product development continues at an impressive pace, with several new machines this year to get crawler crane buyers excited.

Hitachi Sumitomo

It is a year now since the Japanese manufacturers Sumitomo and Hitachi joined forces and eight months since Hitachi Sumitomo Heavy Industries Construction Crane Company began operations. The new company is responsible for product development as well as sales and marketing. Manufacturing is delegated to Sumitomo Construction Machinery for larger cranes, and to Hitachi for smaller cranes.

The marriage, brokered by Tadano president Sakae Tadano, has created what is claimed to be the world's largest supplier of lattice boom cranes. While we have yet to see the first Hitachi Sumitomo crane, Sumitomo itself has been busy developing new product with its North American subsidiary, Link-Belt, which remains wholly owned by Sumitomo and not part of Hitachi Sumitomo. Despite the Hitachi Sumitomo merger, all cranes destined to be sold in Link-Belt colours, regardless of size, will continue to be produced by Sumitomo.

Link-Belt

The world's newest crawler crane, at time of writing, is the Link-Belt LS-348 H5, which will be unveiled this month and begin shipping next month. Rated at 300 US ton (270t) at 15ft (4.6m), this is the biggest machine in Link-Belt's range. While the headline capacity rating suggests that it is in the same class as the 300 US ton Manitowoc 2250, it is in fact being marketed more against (and priced below) the 275 US ton (250t) 999, and also against the new 300 US ton Terex Demag CC 1500 (seen at Intermat: CT Apr p29) and the 308 US ton Liebherr LR 1280. And while the LS-348 H5 doesn't generally outlift the beefy 2250 it has features that could tempt customers looking for a lower cost option.

The LS-348 H5 is a wholly new machine, not based on an existing Japanese crane in Sumitomo's range, that has been developed by Link-Belt and Sumitomo engineers together specifically for the North American market. The boom and mast are made by Link-Belt in Lexington, Kentucky; everything else is shipped over from Sumitomo Heavy Industries in Nagoya.

Main features of the boom system are:

• 70ft (21.3m) basic heavy duty boom (in four sections)

• 300ft (91.4m) maximum heavy duty boom

• 85ft (25.9m) basic long reach boom

• 355ft (108.2m) maximum long reach boom

• 425ft (129.5m) maximum luffing attachment (205ft boom + 180ft luffer + 40ft fixed jib).

While the boom system is not compatible with other Link-Belt cranes (Manitowoc, in particular, pushes boom system modularity as a selling point), sections of the long reach boom will be interchangeable with other models yet to be unveiled, says Pat Collins, Link-Belt's product manager for lattice boom cranes.

One of the key features of this new machine is a patented system for widening its footprint, allowing it to be 'skinny' where space is a consideration, or 'fat' where space is available and greater capacity is required. The base rating is the same in either configuration, but there are differences throughout the chart of 20% on average. It is not unusual for smaller crawler cranes to use a hydraulic cylinder to push the crawler tracks away from the centre of the crane, but such a feature is not feasible on this size. The LS-348 H5 has the same narrow gauge as the 999 when 'skinny' 19ft 2in (5.8m) but the crane can also be assembled with a patented extender block (also called spacer block) in the carbody side frame to widen the gauge to 22ft (6.7m). The success of the 999 is due, in significant part, to its narrowness, says Collins. 'We want to be able to outpick it and get in anywhere it can,' he says. The length of the crawler tracks is 30ft 8in (9.3m).

Self-assembly is achieved by using a single hydraulic cylinder that is mounted in the live mast. The counterweight removal system, operable by remote control, takes the entire 223,000 lb (101t) of rear counterweight in a single package and it sets it on the ground with no blocking required. Full counterweight comprises 13 sections, each of which can be transported with boom sections to minimise loads. The counterweight removal system can itself self-detach if necessary in regions ultra-sensitive to weight perhaps. An additional 75,000 lb (34t) of counterweight is built into the lower, with three pieces at the front and three at the rear.

The whole machine is powered by a 350kW/470hp Isuzu diesel engine. (The Manitowoc 2250 has a 335kW/450hp engine and the 999's is 291kW/390hp). Line pull is 55,000 lb (25t) on the front and rear drums. Line speed is 565fpm (172.2m/min). The load moment indicator is a Sumitomo SML-10, with sensors in the boom hoist suspension system. Options include freefall front and rear drum, third drum in the boom base and rear mounted fourth drum.

It also features new design head machinery. The head sheaves are offset under the boom tip to give greater load clearance from the boom. Top section deflector sheaves keep load lines above the boom. All sheaves are polyamide.

Terex Demag / Terex American / IHI

New from Demag is the CC 1500, rated at 275t (300 US ton). This is a stripped down version of the 300t class CC 1800-1, which was deemed to be too heavy a crane to compete effectively with the Manitowoc 999 in the North American market. Although produced with the US market in mind, the first three sales have in fact been to European customers: one to Franz Bracht in Germany and two to Weldex in the UK. In Europe it competes primarily with Liebherr Nenzing's 280t LR 1280.

The CC 1500 has no Superlift attachment, so the upper and carrier are lighter than on the CC 1800-1, and it carries less counterweight. The main boom system is similar maximum boom length of 102m and a maximum tip height of 132m but the wall thickness of the boom tubes is less. An improvement on the heavier version, the CC 1500 has the new Demag IC-1 control system.

This machine was launched at Intermat, alongside a new 70t crawler, the CC 280-1. This machine is built for Terex Demag by IHI in Japan. IHI has been supplying crawler cranes to Terex American since 1998; the CC 280-1 represents an extension of that badging agreement to Europe. The CC 280-1 on show in Paris has now returned to Demag's factory in Germany to be tested for conformity to European regulations.

Steve Filipov, Terex Cranes' group president/Europe & International, says that two more IHI-built crawlers a 50 tonner and a 100 tonner will be added to the Demag line up in the next couple of months. The 'Demag' IHIs, aimed at the European market, have the same base machine as the 'American' IHIs (which will continue to be designated 'HC' rather than 'CC'). Both machines have a Cummins engine, but different booms. The Demag IHIs have the original Japanese booms. The booms of the Terex American HC cranes are made at the American Crane factory in Wilmington, North Carolina.

IHI's own branded IHI cranes, which are still being distributed in Europe through UK-based AGD, have a Hino engine and a slightly lighter chassis, explains Filipov. This means, he says, that the Terex versions have slightly more capacity. Another difference is that the Terex IHIs have self-loading counterweight, while Japanese IHIs have fixed counterweight.

For the North American market Terex-American is planning a new 165 US ton model, the HC 165, to be launched in the next couple of months. As before, the base of this machine is built for Terex by IHI in Japan and the boom is built in the US.

Terex and IHI appear to be establishing an ever closer relationship. Filipov reveals that Demag and IHI engineers are now working together on bigger machines in the 200t to 300t range. Three new models are in development, not necessarily all aimed at the same geographic market.

Kobelco

Kobelco announced the launch last month of two completely new machines for the world market: the 135t class CKE 1350 and the 400t CKE 4000. (North American versions are styled CK, rather than CKE.)

The CKE 1350 replaces the 120t CKE 1200 and goes against Liebherr's new 143 US ton LR 1130 (see below) and 150 US ton models such as the Link-Belt LS-238H II. In the UK it is being promoted as a replacement for old NCK Eiger models.

The design of the CKE 1350 is based on the 180t CKE 1800 the next biggest model in Kobelco's range and it uses virtually the same chassis, with new 235kW Euro II Mitsubishi 6D24-TLA2F engine, Kawasaki-Rexroth hydraulics and extra wide winches with oil-cooled, multi-disc brakes. It has a maximum boom length of 82m and a maximum combined boom/luffing jib length of 100.6m (48.8m + 51.8m).

A key sales point of the CKE 1350 is its transportability. The transport height of the main machine is 3.1m 200mm less than the CKE 1800. This means that it can go on a standard, rather than a lowbed, trailer and still be under 4m high. Transport width of main machine is 3.2m.

With standard 910mm wide shoes, crawler width of this machine is 6.31m. With optional 1.22m shoes, crawler width is 6.62m.

There is a choice of using either stretch out or foldable luffing jib during erection or disassembly. A newly designed boom tower cap allows the luffing jib to fold underneath the boom to save space in erection/disassembly. The crane self-assembles, without an assist crane, in less than five hours, Kobelco says.

The CKE 4000, which lifts 400t at 5m radius, now becomes the biggest crane in Kobelco's international range. Maximum boom length is 96m and maximum combined boom/luffing jib length is 132m (66m + 66m). The luffing jib can lift 113.5t at 16m radius.

In SHL (super heavy lift) configuration, the maximum boom/luffing jib combination is 144m (78m + 66m). With SHL the CKE 4000 can lift 350t at 14m radius.

The CKE4000 is powered by a 294kW Euro II Hino engine and has an overall crawler width of 8.72m.

Both new Kobelco cranes become available at the end of the year. The first two units of the CKE 4000 have already been booked by customers in China.

Liebherr

Liebherr's factories in Ehingen, Germany and in Nenzing, Austria are between them filling out the range of lift cranes. At the top end, as reported last month, Liebherr Ehingen is working on a 1,000t capacity crawler crane that will have four crawler tracks instead of two (one in each corner). This approach is intended to aid transportability.

New this year from Liebherr Ehingen is an SWF boom configuration for the LR 1350. In this configuration, the crane can be assembled with between 48m and 60m of S, or main, boom, up to 78m of luffing jib, and up to 36m of fixed lattice jib, offset at 10°, 25° or 40°. This configuration is aimed at the wind turbine erection market, and also steel erectors.

The other crawler crane development this year from Liebherr Ehingen is upgrading the capacity of the LR 1600/1 by 25% by developing a new heavy boom head. Now renamed the LR 1750, it can lift 750t at an 8m radius when rigged with 35m of main boom, 31.5m of derrick mast, 220t of counterweight and 400t of counterweight on the ballast wagon trailing 20m behind. With the same counterweight and derrick mast, and 140m of main boom, it can lift 105t at a radius of 18m, 60t out to 80m and 16.6t at 124m.

Liebherr Nenzing showed its newest and smallest lift crane at Intermat last month, the 130t capacity LR 1130. As previously reported, this crane is powered by a 240kW (327hp) Liebherr engine and has two 12t winches for high rope speeds. The self-erecting and self-loading system consists of four fold-out support jacks on the undercarriage, an erecting ram for unloading purposes in the boom pivot section and two ballasting rams at the rear of the main machine. The superstructure and the centre section can be put in a standard container and weigh about 36t for transport. Intermediate sections of the fly jib can be slid inside main boom sections to save space.

Manitowoc

Just last month, at the Intermat exhibition in Paris, Manitowoc revealed that it had begun building its first specifically European model at Grove's plant in Wilhelmshaven, Germany. It will be branded as a Manitowoc, though, not a Grove crawler.

As reported on p7, the 15000 is the same class as the 999, rated at 250t (although it may end up being slightly stronger), but has features specifically designed to improve Manitowoc's competitiveness in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Differences between the 15000 and 999 include:

• different operators platform and tilt cab

• can bus electronics

• different boom, with round chords rather than angle chords (although it will still use the #149 luffing jib that the 999 uses)

• Mercedes engine rather than Cummins.

Another significant difference is that the 15000 will have slab counterweight sections and the plan is that new GMK all terrain cranes will have interchangeable counterweight sections with this lattice boom crawler.

Shipping of the 15000 begins in December, Manitowoc says, and the new model will be exhibited at Bauma in Germany next March.

Also new from Manitowoc this year although the first unit shipped last December is the model 18000. This crane, featured in First sight in the January issue of Cranes Today, and exhibited at Intermat last month, is rated at 600t.

Double slew ring special from Liebherr for Weldex
UK crawler crane rental company Weldex takes delivery in January 2004 of a 400t capacity Liebherr LR 1400/2 with TWO slew rings one for turning the upper, and one for turning the tracks.

Weldex chairman and managing director Dougie McGilvray explained that he had met with engineers from Liebherr Ehingen to find a solution to moving fully rigged cranes in the mountains of Scotland. Crawler crane manufacturers make much of the ability of their machines to travel over difficult ground, but owners like Weldex are aware of their limitations.

'We believe there is a big market in the wind farm industry,' McGilvray said. 'Up to now [when erecting wind turbines], we have had to dismantle the crane, move it to the next site and then rebuild it because the roads on wind farms are not wide enough or good enough.'

Liebherr and Weldex came up with what it is calling the 'W' system, patent applied for by Liebherr, to solve this problem. The 'W' system has a new centre section of the undercarriage to make the track width 4.8m instead of the usual 8.7m. Outriggers mounted on the car body give it a width of 11.5m for lifting. With two slew rings the crane can turn 90°. Firstly the crane jacks up and the crawlers slew round. The the jacks are raised and the upper slews round in the conventional way.

And a Nenzing special too

Weldex has also already taken delivery in April of a special crawler crane from Liebherr Nenzing. A 160t capacity LR 1160 has been modified to travel along 5m wide roads by having tracks that retract to 4.5m wide. According to Liebherr, this is the first crawler crane above 100t capacity that has retractable tracks, and can thus travel fully rigged, with full counterweight, on wind farm access roads.

Weldex has bought 24 cranes from Liebherr Nenzing in the past three years, but until now has bought nothing from Ehingen. As well as the LR 1400/2 W arriving in January 2004, a standard LR 1400/2 is scheduled for delivery in September 2003.