A KHL SPECIAL REPORT WORLD TOWER CRANES 2007 2011 A FIVE YEAR REPORT OF THE GLOBAL TOWER CRANE SECTOR FROM INTERNATIONAL CRANES AND SPECIALIZED TRANSPORT MAGAZINE
A KHL SPECIAL REPORT CONTENTS INTERVIEWS 7 PRODUCT LAUNCHES 13 HEALTH & SAFETY 21 FEATURE REPORTS 37 SITE REPORTS 107 IC TOWER INDEX 145 DISCLAIMER All content in KHL s Special Report World Tower Cranes: 2007-2011 comes from articles published in International Cranes and Specialized Transport. Some articles contain references to events that were topical at the time the articles were published, in particular concerning the activities of individual companies. However, the content has been selected so that such references do not reduce the value of the information. KHL Group makes no representation of warranty as to the accuracy or completeness of any information provided, and accepts no liability whatsoever for any loss or damage resulting from opinion, errors, inaccuracies or omissions affecting any part of the content. EQUIPMENT LISTINGS 155 LUFFING JIB 156 SELF ERECTING 157 TOP SLEWING 159
PRODUCT NEWS: WILBERT WT 1905L Largest luffer Wilbert in Germany has launched Europe s largest luffing jib climbing ing tower crane. HEINZ-GERT KESSEL reports Installation of the four additional safety brakes of the luffing winch that act directly on the drum flange. As an option the hoisting winch can also have secondary disc brakes Wilbert s new WT 1905L e.tronic luffing jib tower crane is claimed to be the largest luffing jib climbing tower crane built in Europe. It is the first model in the German manufacturer s Heavy-Lifter product line. The new model already surpasses its closest-competing climbing luffing jib tower, the new Wolff 1250B, by about 50% at medium to maximum operating radius, says Kessel. Internationally, the new giant manufactured in the all new Wilbert factory in Waldlaubersheim, Germany, can easily compete with the Favelle Favco M1250D at more than 25 m radius, Kessel continues. At long reach the WT 1905L e.tronic even catches up with the popular Favelle Favco M1280D. Capacity of that crane is 23.5 tonnes at 72 m radius and 30 tonnes at 60 m. Due to its modular design, customer requests for the Heavy-Lifter line can be All steel fabrication of the WT 1905L e.tronic was done in Wilbert s new plant at Waldlaubersheim, Germany. The slewing ring support is shown in production on the large CNCcontrolled boring mill Before delivery to the test yard, all main components were preassembled in the plant to ensure best quality. Pictured is the rigging of the ballast carrier framework quickly realized concerning the length of the counter jib, winch capacity and maximum load. Performance data for the WT 1905L e.tronic makes impressive reading: to 25 m radius capacity is 80 tonnes and is still 19 tonnes at the 78 m maximum radius. A new modular hoist winch arrangement gives high hook speed and large rope storage capacity, making the crane especially suitable for ultra- tall construction projects. Hoisting speed is 185 m/min and 32 tonnes can be lifted to 900 m or 64 tonnes to 460 m. Compared with the Wolff 1250B, 60 tonnes can be lifted more than 70% higher, Kessel says, which is an advantage for mega column erection on skyscraper projects. At the moment, however, Wilbert s main target is the busy power generation construction market. In Asia and North America large tower cranes are already used for boiler house construction while in Europe, crawler cranes are mainly used. Franz Rudolf Wilbert, Wilbert Tower Cranes managing director is convinced that his Heavy-Lifter tower crane series offers numerous advantages over lattice boom mobile cranes in the 500 to 800 14 WORLD TOWER CRANES 2007-2011
FEATURE REPORTS Safe luffing Saddle jib cranes began to replace luffers in Europe in the early 1970s. It was a trend that continued until the mid-1980s. Now that European manufacturers have begun to rediscover the luffer, careful attention should be given to following safe design principles, writes HEINZ-GERT KESSEL The rising popularity of saddle jib cranes at the expense of luffers in Europe started in the early 1970s and lasted until the middle of the 1980s. The luffing jib tower crane became a niche market in Europe whereas, especially in Japan, Australia and the USA, luffing jib crane development continued to dominate the high rise climbing crane sector. Leading European crane manufacturers RIGHT: Rope guided moving ballast on a Favco STD 1500. To climb the crane, the ballast carrier had been secured near the tower and the jib was lowered to balance the crane. The ballast rope shows slack rope condition. Note the saddle back platform providing access to the movable counterweight have rediscovered the luffing jib principle due, largely, to an internalisation of their sales activities. It was further promoted by changing legislation surrounding air space rights, for example, in the United Kingdom. Another major contributor was the growing number of congested inner city sites as construction density increased. A shift towards luffing jib cranes is now continuing on typical city or high rise On inner city sites nearby buildings can have significant influence on the wind force and wind load on a tower crane. In addition, in cramped conditions a steep angle in out of service condition must be chosen for a luffing jib crane, here demonstrated by a Jost 416.24 luffer with pendular counterweight in Melbourne LEFT: The Potain MR 225 represents the common European luffing jib crane design with fixed ballast. For weather vaning the nearby cranes with 30 m short jib had large wind sail plates fixed at the jib head ABOVE: To enlarge the wind sail area in a unique steep out of service condition of the jib, special typhoon sails were lifted up by the Peiner SN630 and SN1000 cranes building the Hong Kong Shanghai Bank headquarters WORLD TOWER CRANES 2007-2011 67
FEATURE REPORTS Special tower cranes for cooling tower construction are in demand as the call for energy around the world rises rapidly. HEINZ- GERT KESSEL reports Cooling towers at electrical power generation plants are used for re-cooling the cooling water of highperformance steam power plants. A steady increase in the capacity of power generation plants means a commensurate rise in demand for cooling capacity. In humid climates natural draught towers are used where the diameter and height of the structures are directly related to the power plant s efficiency. In general, With two climbing cages the their hyperbolic reinforced concrete design Wolff 180B is climbed to a free characterises the skyline of a power plant. standing tower height of 126.7 m. At the beginning of the last century The application of heavy TV33 concrete cooling towers had a height of base tower sections lead to a very 35 m, while now they are generally 160 to rigid tower combination reducing 200 m tall and 90 to 130 m in diameter. bending deflection On the drawing board are designs up to Cool towers 230 m tall and 164 m diameter. Cooling tower projects call for sophisticated crane solutions and are a real challenge in several ways. Natural draft cooling towers take the form of a single-shell rotation hyperboloid. A central tower crane with long jib is needed to cover the base diameter of the shell. When dismantling the crane after toping out the cooling tower, the same crane must pass through the narrowest diameter of the structure. The increasing size of cooling towers exceeds the capabilities of ordinary free standing tower cranes, which means special extreme free standing tower solutions or tie in systems are needed. Rope guyed > For the placement of pre-cast X-shaped 115 tonne pillars at the base of a cooling tower in France, Potain developed a circular rail-travelling 120 tonne portal crane with 36 m span and 30.5 m height, where the feet are made up of standard crane sections. Today, this pre-cast erection work at cooling tower basements is generally done using large capacity mobile cranes WORLD TOWER CRANES 2007-2011 73
2007 Notes for IC50 Tower Index In a similar way to the main IC50 Index, companies that own and/or rent out tower cranes are ranked by their IC Tower Index. Reflecting the widespread use of the tonnemetre rating method, the index is calculated by adding together the maximum load moment rating in tonne-metres for all tower cranes in a company s fleet. Where companies supply the full data the figure used is calculated by them. Like the main IC50 listing the IC Tower Index will be updated in the first quarter of 2008. If you would like an application form for your company for next year s listing, please contact IC at the address on page 3. 2007 IC50 TOWERS The 2007 IC Tower Index continues to be dominated by two companies, which have retained their positions at the top once again. Belgium-based Arcomet holds the top spot over second placed Morrow, headquartered in the US. There has not been much movement elsewhere in the top ten aside from a newcomer to the Index in the form of Germany s Breuer & Wasel, leaping in to third place. Other big movers are JF Lomma, up from 20 to 16, while AmQuip and Maxim from the US are down from 10 and 12 to 19 and 20, respectively. Breuer & Wasel is the only newcomer to the top 20 of the IC Tower Index. Hovering just outside the 20 are Linden Comansa America, Lewis Equipment, Coast Crane and Bigge Crane and Rigging, all of which are based in the US. IC TOWER INDEX 2007 2007 2006 Company Country No. of Number Scope of No. of Largest Largest IC rank rank depots of emps operation towers tower tower Tower (make and model) (tonnes) Index 1 1 Arcomet Belgium 25 335 Worldwide 1582 Liebherr 630 EC-H 50 50 196,430 2 2 Morrow Equipment USA 25 310 Worldwide 543 Liebherr 1800C 60 179,817 3 n/a Breuer & Wasel Germany 6 315 Worldwide 361 Liebherr 630 EC-H 40 40 107,500 4 3 Select Tower Cranes UK 6 435 Worldwide 325 Comedil CTL 630 32 103,421* 5 4 Wolffkran Germany 12 200 Worldwide 420 Wiolff 900B 45 66,105* 6 5 Kammerlander Germany 6 54 Worldwide 385 Wolff WD 262 17 54,710* 7 6 Van der Spek Belgium 4 210 Continental 428 Liebherr 630 EC-H 50 50 53,721 8 7 Wilbert Germany 1 75 Worldwide 180 Wilbert WT650 e-tronic 32 48,084 9 8 Matebat Groupe France 8 120 Worldwide 489 Potain K 3.59 12 47,894* 10 9 Jaso Spain 6 321 Worldwide 615 Jaso J600 20 43,158* 11 11 HTC Plant UK 2 280 UK and Ireland 200 Wolff 500B 45 38,100 12 13 Oriental Rigging and Equipment Taiwan 1 82 National 58 Favelle Favco M760 64 20,869* 13 14 Kranenbouw Bergeijk Netherlands 1 30 Worldwide 105 Comansa 21 LC400 25 14,000 14 15 Feurig-Baumaschinen Germany 2 24 Worldwide 165 Liebherr 280 EC-H 12 12,024 15 16 Boom Logistics Australia 1 25 National 32 Favco 1500 12 10,105* 16 20 JF Lomma USA 6 300 National 55 n/a 64 9,532 17 17 Locabens Brazil 1 120 Worldwide 86 Liebherr 360 t-m 7,500 18 18 Dielco Crane Service USA 1 135 Worldwide 40 Potain MD560-M40 40 3,800* 19 10 AmQuip USA 15 620 Worldwide 97 SK575 / MR605B 36 3,010 20 12 Maxim Crane Works USA 38 2241 Worldwide 95 SK575 / MR605B 36 2,650 21 n/a Linden Comansa America USA 10 NA Worldwide 160 LC 8592 24 2,550 22 n/a Lewis Equipment USA 8 500 Continental 160 Comedil CTL 630 & CTT721-40 40 2,500* 23 n/a Coast Crane USA 13 276 Continental 180 n/a n/a 2,000* 24 n/a Bigge Crane and Rigging USA 7 350 Worldwide 20 Peiner SK575 32 450 25 22 Guay Canada 15 450 Continental 25 Pecco PC4400 20 314 Estimate * WORLD TOWER CRANES 2007-2011 153