Liebherr-Werk Ehingen is testing its new 600t crawler crane, the LR 1600/1, which it is offering as a pedestal crane without crawlers as an option.
The designers believe that for some applications, such as wind turbine erection, it might be cheaper for crane owners to have just the ca body, supported by swingout outriggers, rather than buy crawler tracks which they may not really need. The pedestal crane would be moved around the jobsite, if necessary, on a trailer. A trailer is needed to transport the crane to the jobsite anyway, so why pay extra for crawler tracks, Liebherr suggests.
The company has yet to persuade any customers of the merits of this idea, but it has pre-sold five units of the new crane in the conventional crawler version, which will be shown at the Bauma exhibition in Munich next March.
As a crawler crane the supporting base is 8.8m by 10.6m. As a pedestal crane it has a maximum supporting base of 12m by 16m.
When stationary and with outriggers extended (whether fitted with crawler tracks or not), its capacities are up to 50% greater than those of the travelling crane.
The boom features a capacity-enhancing derricking system with a telescoping suspended counterweight or telescopable counterweight trailer, as seen on the earlier LR 1400/1.
Features designed to speed erection and dismantling include: a hydraulic pin pulling device; stay rods and assembly pins that remain on the boom sections; and derricking pulley blocks that remain in reeved state.
The LR 1600/1 is powered by a 400kw (544hp) Liebherr engine. Each crawler carrier can be equipped with one or two hydraulic travel drives. The diesel-hydraulic crane drive is realised by six axial piston variable displacement pumps with capacity control in closed oil circuits.
It has up to six winches, depending on boom configuration. Hoist speeds are up to 130m/min, maximum rope pull is 160kN and rope length is up to 1,350m.
