German manufacturer Liebherr has won the “Innovation” award at the Heavy Lift Awards 2023 for its new LR 12500-1.0 crawler crane.
The crane was announced to the world in April 2022, with the first model being delivered to global engineered-heavy lifting group Sarens a year on in April 2023. The Innovation Award, an award presented to companies that have developed an innovative piece of equipment or technology to improve the transport or lifting of heavy and oversized cargoes, went to Liebherr. The jury awarded the Liebherr the award for the LR12500-1.0, a machine it described as a “master of innovation” for combining several concepts into one solution.
According to the manufacturer, the key to the 2500-tonne crane’s high lifting capacities is its wide lattice boom. Designs to date have been a double boom like the “PowerBoom” or the widespread SX systems; however, the Liebherr designers chose a completely different path during the design process for the LR 12500-1.0, developing a powerful 7.5m wide lattice boom which enables the crane to “set new standards”.
This “HighPerformanceBoom” gives the crane the power and stability of a “PowerBoom” while also reducing its weight, resulting in the high lifting capacities of the powerful 2,500-tonne machine. For Liebherr, the key attribute of the “HighPerformanceBoom” is the fact that the forces are transferred in the full width to the slewing platform.
However, the high power of the crane’s boom is not the only feature that singled the crane out for the Innovation Award, with Liebherr’s ‘fold-up’ transport solution taking the German manufacturer clear from the rest of the field. Requiring a “sophisticated mechanism” to fold the ten-metre boom sections for economical transport, the sections can then be unfolded and assembled on site using a special device that stabilises the lattice type sections during the assembly process.
READ MORE:
- Sarens orders first Liebherr LR 12500-1.0 crawler crane.
- Liebherr launches new crane.
- First Liebherr crawler arrives in largest UK crane company’s depot.
Liebherr’s 2500-tonne capacity crawler crane is capable of lifting at a maximum hoist height of 200m and can operate safely at a maximum radius of 168m. According to the manufacturer, the machine is “mainly designed” for loading heavyweight goods at ports, or for industrial applications.
The Heavy Lift Awards 2023 were held at the Royal Lancaster Hotel, London, on October 25.