Crane business

Heavy haulers have had to invest in new equipment to haul wind components due to their increasing weights and heights. Permitting and regulatory issues continue to complicate matters. Jeff Hampton reports. Transporters of wind energy components are juggling the challenges of carrying ever-larger loads and maneuvering the continued tangle of permits.

With all the reports of wind turbine installations we could not resist publishing a report on a more traditional windmill erection job. The Zeldenrust Windmill in the Dutch town of Dokkum is an octagonal ‘stellingmolen’ or Smock and cap stage mill, with four pairs of stones two for wheat and two for producing pearl barley.

Linden Comansa’s LCL Series of luffing jib cranes will be completed in September, with the launch of a fourth model, the LCL 165. In just more than a year, the Spanish manufacturer has completely renewed its range of luffers. The LCL 190 crane was presented at Bauma 2010, while the LCL 280 and LCL 310 were launched in March 2011.

IPAF welcomes the position paper issued by the FEM Product Group for Cranes and Lifting Equipment, which states that cranes should not be used for lifting people, except in exceptional circumstances where safety requirements have been fulfilled and undertaken at the specific responsibility of the user.

A large Rough Terrain crane working on an overpass in Tacoma, Washington tipped over yesterday bringing work to a halt. The crane, a 100 ton (91 tonne) three axle Link Belt TC80100 owned by Mid Mountain contractors of Kirkland Washington, was working on the laying of the last segment of track for the Sounder commuter rail extension that will run from Tacoma to Lakewood in 2012.

Babcock and ZPMC commissioned the new 1,000 tonne gantry crane today at the Rosyth dockyard in Scotland. The 90 metre high 120 metre span crane lifted a mere 150 tonne load today in front of 1,200 people to kick off the formal load testing programme.

A tower crane operator died yesterday at London’s Olympic Village site in Stamford while climbing down from his cab. The man, said to be 65, was discovered in the tower of his crane, some feedback from the site suggests that he may have slipped and fell causing serious head injuries.

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.

The team at Facelift took a special ultra high resolution photograph at Vertikal Days this week.

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.