When shopping for knuckleboom cranes, buyers have much to consider in deciding which class size they should buy. Because the purchase is for an entire crane package, even the chassis must be part of the equation. Manufacturers says the irst consideration is reach, followed by load. Once those two factors are determined, everything else, including the truck chassis on which the crane will be mounted, will fall into place.

Liebherr Ehingen has installed a new highly efficient, environmentally friendly paint system for large crane components. The aim of the investment is to apply a top quality paint finish to large components in a continuous process -economically. Liebherr says that the installation includes the largest capacity paint conveyor system in the world, in that it can handle individual items of up to 50 tonnes in weight.

Lifting Technologies, headquartered in Missoula, Montana has a nice working relationship with Industrial Training International. They supply crane suspended manbaskets at ITI Training Centers in Woodland, Washington and Memphis, Tennessee while hundreds of project engineers, operators, and riggers utilize them each year in crane and rigging training programs.

SOLITEC®, recently unveiled at the Interalpin 2011 Trade Show in Austria, is TEUFELBERGER‘s latest generation of round strand ropes. It stands for SOLId TEChnology, that is, long service life, minimal initial elongation, and highest flexibility. Ultimate traveling comfort and quietest operation are the result of a refined, innovative manufacturing process that has allowed TEUFELBERGER’s engineers to largely cancel out a rope’s initial elongation as early as in the production stage.

Pieces of the global wind energy market are moving through Vancouver. Through July, trucks and rail cars will haul the enormous wind-energy components — including blades, generators and towers — from the Port of Vancouver to wind farms in Washington, Oregon and Idaho.

Cortland recently produced the world’s largest 12-strand rope for a European client, constructed on the giant 12 strand braiding machine using Cortland’s patented Plasma® synthetic fibre. This rope will be used to create an enormous industrial lifting sling.

Crane manufacturers and contractors are poised to help drive the next big wave of wind energy construction. Jeff Hampton reports. With what most observers agree was a down year now in the rearview mirror, the U.S. wind energy industry is looking for renewed vitality with the help of a strengthening economy and widespread public support

Advancing technology requires increasingly future-proof, flexible and operator safety conscious designs. One of the main issues facing the remote control sector is the ongoing battle for air-space as the number of remote controls in most work environments increases.

Schmidbauer has added its muscle to the Munich art scene by helping to erect a 52 m high sculpture. The company used its 600 tonne capacity Liebherr LR 1600/2 crawler crane to mount the 57 tonne top section of the Mae West statue onto its base at the Effnerplatz roundabout in the German capital.

The new Effi-Plus system increases hoist and lowering speeds with light loads up to 70%, so that the hoist cycle time is significantly shortened, the company says. Effi-Plus has been applied to the 24 kW, 37 kW, 50 kW and 65kW drives of its LC1100, LC2100 and LCL series cranes at no extra cost to customers.