September 22 - The Liebherr LR 1600/2 crawler crane operated by US crane rental company Bigge Crane and Rigging Co. has been hard at work on a wind farm in Ohio.
With a main boom 108 metres in length and a fixed jib of 12 metres (the SL3F system), the crane recently lifted a Games G90 machine housing weighing 75 tonnes onto the top of a 100 metre tower.
Bigge Crane is one of the largest crane hire companies in North America with a fleet consisting of crawler cranes, all-terrain, rough-terrain, and tower cranes, as well as truck cranes. Services range from bare rental of equipment through to complete project performance. As well as this, Bigge is also a leading transportation and heavy lift contractor with in-house engineering and design capacity.
A number of the units in the Bigge crane fleet are intended especially for the wind power industry, and the LR 1600/2 was also specifically selected for operations in this sector.
A whole range of advantages persuaded Bigge that the Liebherr 600-tonner had to be the right choice to make. Liebherr says that the crane is ideally suited for operations in the wind power industry. The SL main boom, at 108 metres in length, and the fixed jib at 12 metres, can achieve hook heights of 117 metres without the need for a derrick or auxiliary crane. With a lifting capacity of more than 95 tonnes this configuration is ideal for the assembly and installation of wind power systems in the 3 MW class on 100 metre towers. And with a derrick system, this kind of work is possible even on towers of 120 metres in height.
