Liebherr’s new mobile harbour crane range

Liebherr-Werk Nenzing announced the latest improvements and up-grades to its range of mobile harbour cranes. This is driven by their in-house “constant improvement program,” a unique facet of the Liebherr philosophy. Rather than “rest on their laurels” the Group will always seek to improve the product to suit the customer needs.
In the latest changes, the main components that make the Liebherr machine what it is are maintained – the highly successful undercarriage system still gives the most manoeuvrable mobile harbour crane in the market; the simple hydrostatic drives remain standard, allowing the same components to be used on all machines and ensure good spares availability and a single system for engineering support; the low wheel loads protect the customers quay from higher point loads of competitor machines; and Liebherr’s in-house control system means no possibility of the system becoming obsolete during the lifetime of the crane. The list goes on, but the new points should take priority!
The new changes alter the whole balance of the range of machines, giving a better “lifting coverage” for the cus-tomer.
During recent years the focus of improvements has been towards the large end of the crane market as this is where market pressures demanded. But Liebherr also believe the “smaller” end of the market cannot be ignored, with up to 30% of annual sales falling in to this region. Like their “big brothers,” the smaller cranes now all feature technical up-grades that will save the customer money and make the crane a more environmentally friendly machine. New points are listed below –

• GRP machinery house on all units, leading to a corrosion-free, lighter structure, with better noise insulation and avoiding steel prices that are still on the increase.
• Internally mounted winches, keeping the components in a better controlled environment and giving longer life and reduced noise levels.
• Oil coolers mounted externally to avoid product contamination of the machinery.
• Electric or diesel prime mover – or both – on all machines.
• Real A8 classification on grab application.
• The ability to work with a fully automatic spreader all the way down to the LHM 180 machine. (5 contain-ers across).
• Higher luffing, slewing and hoisting speeds on the new machines (e.g. the new LHM 180 impresses with a ~12% increased performance of hoisting gear, ~50% increased performance of slewing gear and 100% in-creased performance of luffing gear compared to a LHM 250 of the old series).

With all of the hydraulics being designed to the same level as Liebherr makes its aircraft industry components, the lifetimes of the systems are longer. With all circuits being separately monitored by the Liebherr Lictronic® control and all being closed circuits, the engineers use spectrographic oils analysis techniques and keep the individual components – pumps and motors – in the crane for ever longer times. These methods also allow the service depart-ment to predict when components should be changed, avoiding breakdowns in service and allowing for “service-exchange” of items to keep costs to a minimum.
The new machines can all now be used with the Liebherr Cycoptronic®, with both the anti-sway and point teach-in modes. They are all capable of man-riding as approved by the country’s local regulatory authorities, and feature as an option the eco-drive software, proven in customer tests to save up to 30% on diesel costs.
All machines are also considered during design from an environmental angle. All now have the possibility to be operated with bio-degradable oils, and require less oils on board than its competitors require due to the closed circuits. Add this to the reduced noise signature, reduced fuel requirements, reduced maintenance requirements by using the Lictronic® to structure frequency and it can be seen this really is a “greener” range of cranes.
With the wide-spaced jib head and the closed hydraulic systems giving instantaneous response to the operator, customers are reporting more and more often higher turnover rates, with many achieving 40 container moves per hour. In a recent training in India, a customer pushed this figure to 52 containers in an hour using a LHM 500! This at the end of the day is why people buy Liebherr equipment.


Source:Transportweekly