· Construction of a skyscraper complex in Baku

· Four luffing jib cranes with maximum hook heights of 177 m and 194 m

· Tower Crane Solutions provided support for planning this major project

 

Biberach / Riss (Germany), 23 June 2016 – Four Liebherr luffing jib cranes are currently operating in Baku (Azerbaijan). Since the beginning of 2015 an architectural landmark has been under construction in the capital of Azerbaijan, the urban development project known as "The Crescent Bay".

The project was designed by South Korean architecture agency "Heerim Architects & Planners" and comprises three parts, the Crescent Hotel, the Crescent City and the Crescent Place. The "La Luna" luxury hotel is to be built on a small artificial island and will reach 166 m up into the air. Based on the half-moon on the flag of Azerbaijan, the hotel will be shaped like a vertical sickle open at the bottom. Next to the luxury hotel, "The Crescent Bay" will be a shopping centre covering an area of around 50,000 m² with an indoor and outdoor area, a modern residential complex with 100 apartments and 20 duplex terraced houses as well as an innovative office building with 38 storeys.

The customer Gilan Holding decided on four Liebherr luffing jib cranes. They are able to climb up the inside of the building thus leaving space on the ground for other construction machinery. They climb through openings in the storey ceilings. That means that the entire climbing system is easily accessible. The resulting cavities are closed again as soon as the cranes have climbed past them.

The first storeys of the building had been completed when the cranes were assembled in April 2015. That meant that all four Liebherr luffing jib cranes were attached by a crawler crane from above to the external frame. Two 280 HC-L 12/24 Litronic and two 542 HC-L 18/36 Litronic are now working on the project. The two 280 HC-L cranes have a maximum hook height of 177 m, a radius of 35 m, a lifting capacity of 11 t at the jib head and a 110 kW heavy-duty hoist gear. The two 542 HC-L cranes have a radius of 50 m, a lifting capacity at the jib head of 9.7 t and a motor capacity of 160 kW to reach a maximum hook height of 194 m. The entire reinforced concrete structure for the hotel will be erected by the four Liebherr cranes.

The Tower Crane Solutions Department at Liebherr provided the building contractor with support for planning the project and during the construction phase, which was one of the reasons for working with Liebherr. The technical expertise and excellent service also played an important role in reaching this decision. The four luffing jib cranes from Liebherr are the first internal-climbing cranes in Azerbaijan.

• 1000 EC-B erects wind turbine with a hub height of 149m

•Tower crane reaches a final hook height of 164m

•Space-saving assembly on a small hilltop in the middle of the Black Forest

Biberach / Riss (Germany), 13 June 2016 – A Liebherr tower crane recently erected a wind turbine at an altitude of around 800 m in the Prechtaler Schanze Wind Farm in the Black Forest. The 1000 EC-B with its extremely low footprint erected for the first time a wind turbine with a hub height of 149 m on the hills between the towns of Gutach and Mühlenbach. The tower crane had never before been assembled to such a height for wind turbine manufacturer ENERCON – both with and without guying to the wind turbine tower.

ENERCON's Liebherr 1000 EC-B 125 Litronic tower crane erected a new wind turbine in the Prechtaler Schanze Wind Farm in April 2016. With a hub height of 149 m and a blade diameter of 115 m, it is the largest turbine ever to be erected using this crane. With its 31.50 m jib and a hook height of 164 m, the crane was still able to hoist 100 t using four lines – one of the main features of the most powerful Flat-Top crane built by Liebherr which has been enhanced for erecting wind turbines. The maximum load capacity of this crane is 125 t in the six-line version or 100 t in the four-line version.

Logistic benefits for transport and erection at remote sites

Wind turbines in areas with poor wind conditions are not generally used in large wind farms and instead are erected in wooded areas or locations with difficult access. Both these criteria are applied to this site in the southern Black Forest. According to ENERCON, only the 1000 EC-B 125 Litronic could be considered for the small, steep hilltop in Gutach, Mühlenbach in the middle of the forest. The area required for erecting a complete Flat-Top crane is approximately half of the normal standing area of other crane systems. The jib used in this case was very short which is why no additional site clearance work was required for its assembly.
In addition the logistics required to transport the 1000 EC-B 125 Litronic are much less than for comparable crane systems since the various components of the tower crane are supplied in small packages. The jib components of the large crane can be inserted into the tower elements, transported on a truck and assembled on site.

1000 EC-B 125 Litronic Flat-Top crane from ENERCON climbs to record height
First of all the compact Liebherr LR 1200 crawler crane assembled the Flat-Top crane to its initial hook height of 39 m. From this point the tower crane erected the wind turbine and was able to climb up the turbine tower as it rose using its own climbing equipment.

For this job in the southern Black Forest it climbed to a free-standing hook height of 110 m. It was guyed to the wind turbine at a height of 100 m. Using this single guying, the crane climbed to a final hook height of 164 m. Both free-standing and also fully climbed and guyed, these represented hook heights that ENERCON had never achieved before. They were only possible because Liebherr's flagship Flat-Top crane was assembled on the 1000 HC tower system. The monoblock tower sections with system dimensions of 3.40 m x 3.40 m and a length of 5.80 m allow high free-standing erection heights with short erection times. The erection of the wind turbine took around four weeks.

In addition the crane was fitted with an adjustable undercarriage with a support base measuring 18.0 x 18.0 m at the request of ENERCON for the erection of the first turbine. The support arms can be adjusted on this special undercarriage from the 45° position by +/- 5° or +/- 10°. The footprint of the support base is then 20.4 m x 15.2 m. This means that the crane can be moved closer to the object since it requires so little space.

Specialist for wind turbine erection
The locations chosen for wind turbines generally have harsh wind conditions which can adversely affect cranes. One specific benefit of tower cranes is their operational safety in wind speeds of up to 65 km/h.

The infinitely adjustable crane drive units also allow high working speeds to be used. MICROMOVE fine positioning mode enables the concrete rings, nacelles and rotor blades to be positioned and set down with millimetre precision. The very long rotor blades can also be positioned with millimetre accuracy since swinging movements of the attached components are prevented.

The crane driver has a perfect view of what is going on from the cabin. This makes it easier to position the rotor blades precisely and safely using the trolley jib.

Tom Wilson got in touch. He is looking for work in the building industry in NSW as a tower crane operator.  10+ years experience in the offshore game on the big cranes (100t+) email is tumas.wilson8@gmail.com

A green card or white card is officially known as 'general construction induction card' and that us exactly what it is.

It is a requirement to work on a construction site in Australia.  In each state the cards may be a bit different, in Victoria I believe its red card, in NSW its a white card but we call it a green card... because it used to be green. But whatever card you can use it all over Australia.

For about $100 you go to a workcover registered training company and they induct you on safety and give you a quiz at the end.

The whole process takes about five hours.  Unlike the licences to be a dogman or crane operator which you will fail without study, no one fails the green card.

So if you are a worker from overseas or want to start new in construction the green card is the first step. 

It wont get you a job but without it you wont get a job

Raimondi Cranes SpA, established in 1863, has unveiled the new MRT159 topless crane at ANKOMAK 2016 in Istanbul, Turkey.

The Raimondi MRT159, with a 65 meter jib length and a maximum tip load of 1650 kg, boasts a maxium load of 10,000 kg. Deliveries of the new crane will commence in July 2016, following its presentation at this year’s ANKOMAK exhibition.

“The MRT159 adopts the new topless crane range design by Raimondi, but we have integrated new solutions that improve safety and that facilitate ideal installation on the jobsite.

The flexibility of the MRT159 now has more jib configurations available, and a selection of three different winches with respective powers of 30 kW, 37 Kw, and 45 Kw,” explains Eng. Domenico Ciano, Technical Director, Raimondi Cranes. Ciano further points out that the Raimondi MRT159 has more capacity when compared with the Raimondi MRT152, and that the long jib radius increases the tip load by 25 percent, also by comparison.

According to the organizers, ANKOMAK 2016 brings together more than 1,000 brands and expects over 25,000 attendees, making it one of the region’s most relevant “biennial construction industry events.” AKEM Group, the official Turkish-based Raimondi Cranes agent, is onsite at ANKOMARK 2016 with the erected newly-released MRT159 for the duration of the event.

Note the use of a Static Base, perfect for this situation.

Crane Service Inc sent me over a nice animated chart that shows the hand signals.  They are the USA hand signals and are very similar to the Australian Crane Hand Signals with a few exceptions - the hoist up slowly and stop. We hoist up slowly by holdoing hands up, fingers pointing to the sky and squeeze fingers and thumb together then open and repeat, the same is done to hoist down slow except fingers are pointed towards ground.  Stop is just hand out, palm facing outwards.

When i was working near Wollongong NSW  I saw a helicopter lifting and placing structural steel for a cliff top house. For whatever reason it was impractical to use a crane for that job, either ground conditions or access wouldn't allow a mobile crane.
For the Centerpoint Tower in Sydneys CBD a helicopter was used to add and later remove statues on the top of the tower.

Obviously helicopters will never replace cranes (hopefully haha) but they are a good option when access or setup for a crane is not feasible.  Changing antennas or bringing up machinery on existing highrise or building towers in remote areas with no road access are just a couple of areas when you may have to look at using a helicopter.

Hand signals are used by the dogman to direct the helicopter to place the load.