“The rock anchors are there for when the structure is empty. When it’s empty and the ground water table is above the bottom of the structure, if the rock anchors aren’t there, it could push up out of the ground like a boat. These buoyant forces are exactly what the rock anchors are there to resist,”

explains UMA’s Senior Engineer/Estimating Manager Mitch Crayton.

Cherokee County Water and Sewerage Authority outsourced this pump station improvement project to Atlanta-based Lakeshore Engineering, a heavy civil contractor that focuses on industrial, municipal, and environmental projects. UMA served as the
geotechnical subcontractor.

Located within proximity to Blankets Creek in Canton, Georgia, the water table is known to fluctuate. UMA’s sole function was to install a rock anchor system to keep the pump station’s concrete slab pinned down. The components to be built on top of the slab
would be a diesel engine-driven centrifugal pump and a concrete cast-in-place
emergency storage tank.

Working Down in the Hole

One of the biggest challenges for UMA’s team was working in a 23-foot-deep-by-
56-foot-wide excavation. Lakeshore Engineering had excavated the pit and installed a soldier pile wall with wood lagging. Tied-off workers accessed the pit via ladders.

“We’re working in a pretty tight area compared to what we’re normally used to on highway projects. It’s not the smallest footprint we’ve worked in, but it’s a lot smaller than our usual working space,”

says Crayton.

Lakeshore Engineering installed a mud mat to provide a stable working surface for UMA’s drilling rig and to keep the worksite clean. There was no air movement so the air was pumped in from ground level and circulated with fans to keep workers from breathing in diesel fumes.

The working area had to be dewatered also due to the proximity of Blankets Creek and a water table approximately five feet below the ground. While the failure of
dewatering pumps would not have been cataclysmic, the potential slow accumulation of
water in the working area could have damaged equipment.

One of the visual spectacles on the project was Lakeshore Engineering using a crane
with rigging to lower a Beretta T46 Drilling Rig into the excavation as UMA’s team
provided direction.

“It’s a smaller machine, but we selected it for this purpose. It doesn’t quite get the production that we’re typically used to, but it can hold its own with this smaller hole size,”

Crayton explains.

UMA’s crew was seasoned and used to working together. They were also familiar with the equipment and how to rig it based on past projects.

“We shut down around Christmas every year for safety and for training. We alternate between first aid, forklift certification, and crane and rigging so that everyone is safe on the job site. That’s always our number one concern,”

Crayton says.

Drilling the Rock Anchors

UMA was tasked with installing 24 rock anchors, evenly spaced every 10 feet vertically and 8 feet 8 inches horizontally. Skyline Steel supplied the anchors, which were 1-inch-diameter Grade 150 ksi DCP (double corrosion protected) bar. The owner’s representatives provided the grid layout with specific locations required to support the pump station equipment.

“It was critical to making sure these (rock anchors) worked because it would be very cost-prohibitive to move them. If even one failed, they would have to change reinforcing plans and the connection details of the slab foundation to the actual structure,”

says Crayton.

The Beretta was drilling a minimum 4.25-inch-diameter hole 15 feet down to bedrock with a permanent casing supplied by Star Iron Works. The drilling crew had to focus closely on ensuring that the anchors were plumb and in the exact location specified.

The material was higher quality partially weathered rock, although the crew hit a high-quality bedrock in a handful of areas. The team then drilled into bedrock with a 10-foot
rock socket.

“Our drillers are schooled enough to distinguish between the materials they’re drilling through. One drills a lot slower than the other and they can hear and feel the differences,”

says Crayton.

The Beretta was equipped with a down-the-hole hammer with a 4½-inch bit to drill the rock sockets. This tooling fit perfectly inside the casing, allowing the cuttings to be extracted onto the mud mat before being plowed away with Lakeshore Engineering’s Takeuchi skid steer loader.

“We drill down into a specific rock socket, place our anchors, and lock them all to that slab. That’s how we end up with our rock anchor system,”

Crayton explains.

Testing Anchor Strength and Movement

UMA conducted two extensive performance tests to ensure that the anchors were of sufficient strength to support the pump station. The movement was essential also.

“These anchors are basically like high-strength rubber bands. Anything that moves has some sort of desire to go back to where it was. When they flood this pit with water, the anchors will keep the slab and pump station from rising,”

Crayton says, noting that the anchors are designed to move.

Testing requirements placed some restrictions on the schedule. UMA was only permitted to install two anchors on the first couple of days and conduct a load test to demonstrate that capacity was achieved before installing the third. This pattern continued throughout the project.

UMA was installing multiple corrosion-protected anchors. The corrosion protection is granted by several components within the anchor, in addition to the grout itself. The
grout was then pumped to grade until clean grout was observed.

“We worked with Lakeshore closely to help speed up their construction process and get out of the way so they could finish their job. The main way we expedited our work was to lock off the anchor to a mud mat using a secondary bearing plate,”

Crayton says.

The double bearing plate system had one bearing plate locking the anchor to the mud mat and one suspended in the air to transfer the loading to the foundation. UMA was able to get all of the testing completed at one time under the initial mobilization. This permitted Lakeshore Engineering to set a bearing plate at a certain elevation and pour the structural slab without having to wait on remobilization for final stressing. This allowed a majority of the elastic elongation to occur prior to the final placement of the slab, ultimately saving the contractor time and money.

Batching and Grouting to Lock in Anchors

UMA grouted the rock anchors in place. The material was mixed in a batch plant on-site
with a specific gravity of 1.85 to 1.86. Its team is trained to check specific gravity prior to pumping, and a third-party contractor was retained to take samples and ensure quality control.

This standard mix was one that UMA was accustomed to and achieved the strength that
was required on this project. The spec called for a minimum of 3,500 psi at three days and 5,000 psi at 28 days.

Most of UMA’s soil nail projects require larger material quantities and hole diameters, and also deeper drilling.

“The crew that was doing this job came off of a year-long soil nail project so they were used to drilling 30-foot-long, six-inch diameter holes, and four batches of grout at a time. There’s a pretty big difference between a rock anchor job and a soil nail job, and our crew adapted well to the switch,”

says Crayton.

The grout was pumped through a tremie pipe to the bottom of the hole from within the casing. The casing sections were installed with the Beretta drilling rig, which was equipped with a special adaptor. UMA was performing a duplex drilling process, which involves drilling the casing and the hole concurrently. Once the rock was hit, the casing was halted, and drilling continued with the inner rod.

UMA workers fed casing to the drilling rig by hand.

“Normally we would use an EZ Spot UR attachment on the excavator to handle large casing sections. We had to use smaller pieces on this job because we didn’t have the real estate to put them in the pit with us,”

Crayton says.

The majority of UMA’s work on the Blankets Creek Pump Station project was done within a week and completed on schedule. Despite the technical nature of the work, the distance between the Jobsite in Georgia and UMA headquarters in Colfax, North Carolina was the true challenge.

“Making sure that everyone who needed to observe different processes was onsite during the installation and load testing was our greatest challenge,”

says Crayton.

That’s generally the hardest aspect of most of our projects: the distance between the field where the actual work is done and the office where the computers are required to do the analysis.”

The post UMA Goes Deep to Anchor Georgia Pump Station appeared first on North America FarmQuip Magazine.

Smart Crane simplifies crane control too. With just three joystick movements, the operator can easily control the grapple with great precision.

“The telescopic boom extension is controlled automatically, meaning one less thing for the operator to think about. Fewer joystick movements make the job easier – even for an experienced operator – and mean better operator ergonomics. Another advantage is that it is much easier for an inexperienced operator to quickly hone their crane operation skills,”

“Our Smart Crane technology builds on SmartFlow, our intelligent crane control that includes an intelligent crane valve to ensure that the right pressure and flow are supplied to the crane at all times, regardless of the load. With its active crane damping, it also ensures impressive responsiveness and great precision in all crane movements. The crane quite simply feels like an extension of your own arm,”

Another reason for the crane’s excellent precision is that the Smart Crane system can distribute the movement between the crane functions so that vibrations and shocks are reduced. This contributes to better operator ergonomics while at the same time protecting the crane components and extend their service life.

Since such a large share of a forwarder operator’s working day involves crane operation, increased efficiency offers great potential. Smart Crane provides the operator with advantages such as simpler crane operation, less physical strain and higher productivity. Advantages that benefit both profitability and the operator’s wellbeing.

Source: Komatsu Forest

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“ECA is thrilled to add this BAUER MC 96 Duty-Cycle Crane equipped with a Berminghammer leader and a powerful BAUER KDK 280S Rotary Head to our fleet. This rig can drill up to 150 feet of single-pass piles (CFA or FDP) in various diameters, which is 25 feet more than our BG 45 in the high-end CFA setup,”

says Director of BAUER Product Sales and Service Gordian Ulrich.

When equipped with the 138-foot-long (42-meter) Berminghammer lead, BAUER’s 130-ton duty-cycle crane can reach depths of up to 150 feet (45 meters). The specially adapted MC 96 mast geometry allows an operator to drill in single-pass mode using the complete mast length. This means that the 750-millimeter auger can achieve a depth of 115 feet (35 meters) in a completely continuous drilling process. It is also possible to attach a Kelly extension to drill down an additional 33 feet (10 meters).

This customized rig represents a partnership between two of the world’s leading manufacturers of foundation equipment. Berminghammer and BAUER Maschinen collaborated to develop this special lead set up specifically for the MC 96 series of duty-cycle cranes in 2020.

BAUER and Berminghammer also developed special joint kinematics to allow the lead itself to be rigged easily and quickly. No additional modifications are required to connect the Berminghammer lead to any MC duty-cycle crane.

In addition to the latest drilling features such as drill or pull assist, this MC 96 uses a standard BAUER KDK 280S Rotary Head, which is powered by the onboard Caterpillar C18 engine. This means that no additional power pack is required, which reduces noise levels and operating costs.

The post ECA Brings Greater Drilling Depths to U.S., Canada with BAUER MC 96/Berminghammer Lead Setup appeared first on North America FarmQuip Magazine.

The application areas of loader cranes gain more and more in complexity and require an increasing level of precision and finesse. With the TEC-range Palfinger offers powerful loader crane models for these complex and specialized operations as a perfect solution.

More than an optical aspect

The visible feature – the so-called P-profile – a polygonal shaped boom extension system – is implemented in the entire technology range and turns it into an extraordinary innovation in the loader crane sector. The design is especially rigid and lightweight for the most impressive performance. Furthermore, the Palfinger P-profile boom extension system is also low in maintenance, which significantly increases availability.

Optional features

The TEC-range consists of two different model lines. The model line TEC 5 features the well known TEC steel construction with P-profile and the majority of system options that can be expected from the TEC-range. The model line TEC 7 offers a lot more than just its familiar and highly innovative steel construction – it is the high-end model line of Palfinger. In addition, to get maximum lifting power, the full range of assistance and comfort systems is available to choose from.

Full lifting power

The Dual Power Systems – DPS-Plus for TEC 5 and DPS-C for TEC 7 – help to use the maximum lifting power also in fly jib mode for enhanced crane performance. The really special thing about DPS-C is that it continuously maximizes the lifting power in every position because the system knows exactly where the boom tip is due to the sophisticated sensors and electronics.

The crane as a scale

A further interesting function of the TEC 7 model line is the feature WEIGH. It allows particularly quick and easy to weigh loads at the site of deployment without any additional tool. The crane operator weighs the load directly on the crane and knows exactly where it can be lifted. There is almost no need to move the truck and this saves a lot of time. Moreover, it is possible, to sum up, weights and to have a look at the ten latest weighing operations, including date and time.

The post Palfinger presents the New TEC-range Loader Crane Models appeared first on North America FarmQuip Magazine.

The fourth generation of the owner’s family of crane and heavy haulage contractor Wiesbauer GmbH made their first trip to the Liebherr plant in Ehingen to take delivery of a crane. This traditional family-run company based in Bietigheim-Bissingen (Baden-Württemberg) has significantly upgraded its crane fleet. Not only did the Swabian company take delivery of another LTM 1750-9.1 mobile crane, but an LTR 1220 telescopic crawler crane and a new 1000 tonne crawler crane were also added to its fleet. This LR 11000 celebrated a fantastic premiere in summer by hoisting a bridge to the north-east of Stuttgart.

When a major bridge construction project was started two years ago by Deutsche Bahn in southern Germany, Wiesbauer and its Liebherr LR 11000 crawler crane received the order to remove a 100-year-old iron railway bridge. After two years of operating with a temporary structure, the new bridge was finally installed at the site around 20 kilometers from Stuttgart at the beginning of September.

However, the large crane used for the initial work was no longer available to conclude the construction project. Like many other models of this crawler crane operated by European crane contractors, that LR 11000 is now in long term use for “Buckner Heavylift Cranes” at a major wind power project in the USA.

Wiesbauer, therefore, used a brand new 1,000-tonne crawler crane to remove the temporary bridge and install the final bridge structure and also for subsequent projects. Although the LR 11000 had plenty of space for its crane operations two years previously to hoist the historic bridge, the conditions on-site this time were significantly more restricted – there was very little space available for slewing operations, in particular, as a result of the assembly preparation areas for the new steel bridge and various prefabricated concrete components, containers and a great deal of other building material.

However, using the adjustable V-frame, crane operator Thomas Kley was able to adapt to the lack of space and effortlessly retracted the ballast pallet suspended from the derrick boom to a radius of 15 meters. After traveling around 20 meters on its crawler carriers, when the load was subsequently positioned with a radius of 61 meters, a total of 440 tonnes of suspended ballast was extended to a radius of 28 meters, in other words almost the maximum radius, using the V-frame.

“The V-frame with VarioTray, with its wide radius range from 13 to 30 meters, delivers massive benefits on sites like this, it saves time and also often dispenses with additional ballasting work during the job”,

explained Marco Wilhelm, Authorised Signatory, and Project Manager at Wiesbauer.

“The calculations and forecasts for the bridge weight changed constantly during this job. But this ballasting system enables us to react very flexibly when necessary. We had to do so several times on this site as a wide range of loads from ten to 185 tonnes had to be hoisted using a very wide range of radii over the six weeks that the job lasted. For example, due to a change in the design, the largest load that required hoisting was in fact a 185-tonne prefabricated concrete component.”

For the jobs in the wind farm, which followed the bridgework, the crawler crane was once again operated exclusively with the V-frame and the VarioTray detachable ballast pallet.

“We only need the full counterweight for erecting the crane. After that, we only use the undocked center section of the suspended ballast on the wind turbines.”

But Marco Wilhelm does not believe that the new crawler crane flagship of the Wiesbauer fleet will be restricted to wind power sites, he also thinks that the crane will be very useful for jobs in industry and bridge construction as well as large infrastructure projects. With around 80 cranes and a workforce of 160, Wiesbauer GmbH & Co.KG is a major provider of crane and heavy haulage logistics services based in southern Germany.

The integration of what is now the fourth generation of family members in the company provides consistency and continuity at Wiesbauer. The LTM 1750-9.1 mobile crane mentioned above was collected from Liebherr in Ehingen by the great-grandchildren of company founder Franz Wiesbauer.

This modern, power pack of a 9-axle crane is the third mobile crane of this type that Wiesbauer now has in its fleet.

“One of the main reasons behind our purchase was the increase in crane performance delivered by the new 800 tonne kit for this crane”,

explained the three young entrepreneurs. With a luffing jib and Y guying, the company now has a full set of equipment for the LTM 1750-9.1. The fact that it has the complete set makes this crane unique in Baden-Württemberg. In addition to the erection of tower segments at wind farm sites, the new crane will also be used for industrial installation work and jobs on the ”Filstal Bridge” project between Stuttgart and Ulm.

Source: Liebherr

The post Liebherr updates about its cranes and its projects appeared first on North America FarmQuip Magazine.

Liebherr-MCCtec Rostock GmbH together with Aibel AS has signed a contract for the delivery of a cylinder-luffing crane, type RL 2600-35 Lit. The company TenneT TSO GmbH commissioned Aibel AS to build the offshore platform DolWin epsilon on which the Liebherr crane will be used for supply and maintenance tasks on the German North Sea.

The RL 2600-35 Lit is a weight-optimized and compact designed offshore crane. It is the ideal equipment for small platforms, where space is limited. The RL 2600-35 Lit has a box boom with a maximum working outreach of 52 meters and a maximum lifting capacity of 35 tons.

“With the RL 2600-35 Lit, we are delivering the latest innovation within our offshore crane portfolio. The crane is ready to be equipped with innovative maintenance features to meet the demanding requirements of normally unmanned offshore platforms and with its reliable and maintenance-friendly design the RL 2600-35 Lit will help to lead the DolWin5 project to a success”,

says Matti Basan, Sales Manager Offshore Cranes.

With DolWin5 TenneT realizes a high-voltage direct current offshore grid connection system in the German part of the North Sea. The grid connection has a transmission capacity of 900 MW and is located in the DolWin cluster. DolWin5 is to connect the offshore wind park Borkum Riffgrund 3 to the high-voltage grid onshore.

Long cooperation with Aibel AS and TenneT

The RL 2600 will be delivered in the middle of 2021. Until that, Liebherr will collaborate closely with Aibel AS, who is responsible for building the offshore platform. With this order, the business relationship between Liebherr and Aibel AS is expanded and strengthened. Once the platform has been completed, TenneT will take it over and operate the RL 2600-35 for maintenance work and the loading and uploading of offshore supply vessels.

Liebherr delivered already 13 RL cranes to the customer TenneT. Various sizes were requested, from the RL 850 and the RL 1500 to the RL 2650 with a possible maximum lifting capacity up to 60 tonnes. All of these cranes are placed on offshore platforms, which are necessary for the operation of offshore wind farms. Liebherr and TenneT are thus contributing to the expansion of renewable energies and emission-free power supply.

Weight-optimized and compact design

A weight-optimized and compact design with a load-bearing capacity up to 100 tonnes makes the ram luffing crane series (RL) from Liebherr an ideal piece of equipment for small and unmanned platforms or floating storage vessels. The ram luffing crane RL can be powered electro-hydraulically or diesel-hydraulically and is available for explosive areas in accordance with the requisite classification. The box-type booms in the RL crane have a cylinder luffing design. This lowers the height and weight to a minimum and enables low-maintenance operation.

Source: Liebherr

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Crane and heavy haulage contractor MaxiKraft has placed an order with Liebherr for lattice boom cranes for industrial and wind power jobs – the order for LR 1800-1.0 and LR 11000 crawler cranes and the LG 1750 lattice boom mobile crane is the largest single order for lattice boom cranes that Liebherr has ever received from within Germany. It is part of the total volume of around 40 million euros which MaxiKraft is investing in mobile and crawler cranes this year from Liebherr. For its part, Liebherr has taken a large parcel of used cranes in part exchange.

Maik Kanitzky, the owner of the group of companies, said:

“Wind power is on an upward trend in Germany and we want to be right at the forefront of it. That is why we are investing in the highest performance cranes with the latest technology which is currently available on the market”.

MaxiKraft ordered the LG 1750 with the SX3 system. This is the most powerful wind power boom available for the 750-tonne lattice crane. For the LR 1800-1.0, the company has ensured that it is suitable for universal, flexible use:

“We have bought the 800-tonne crane with a complete set of equipment – with a luffing jib for industrial jobs and a special boom for wind power. The LR 1800-1.0 is a very efficient machine for all sectors with an extremely impressive overall design”,

said Kanitzky. MaxiKraft ordered the LR 11000 with the latest system for erecting wind turbines, currently the most powerful available on the market.

Over the years, MaxiKraft has purchased a grand total of 660 mobile and crawler cranes from Liebherr, representing a total investment of half a billion euros.

“Continuous new investments are very important to us to ensure that we keep our crane fleet up with the state of the art”,

noted Kanitzky.

The MaxiKraft Group orders around 30 to 50 new cranes every year. The current order for 2020 comprises 31 mobile cranes and, in addition to the three lattice boom cranes, covers the whole range of crane models from 2 to 9 axles.

MaxiKraft was founded in 1992 by Maik Kanitzky as a one-man company. Its successful growth is reflected in its figures: Today, with its subsidiaries MaxiMum, Kranlogistik Sachsen, Treffler, and Kranlogistik Lausitz the group has a total of 500 employees at 23 sites. The company specializes in all work requiring mobile and crawler cranes, as well as heavy haulage. Around 80 percent of its fleet is made up of Liebherr machines.

Source: Liebherr

The post Liebherr presents new Maxikraft order appeared first on North America FarmQuip Magazine.

Flexibility and an edge in expertise

Thanks to Power Link Plus, tasks such as reaching through low door openings and working inside buildings no longer present a challenge. Power Link Plus is a double-linkage system that increases the crane’s lifting power thanks to the special connection between the knuckle boom and main boom and the main boom and crane column. The knuckle boom can also be over-extended by up to 15° and offers the crane operator even more potential applications with the PK 55.002 TEC 5 and PK 58.002 TEC 7.

With the WEIGH function on the TEC 7 model, it is particularly quick and easy to weigh loads at the site of deployment. Crane operators weigh the load directly on the crane so that they know exactly where they can lift it. This saves time as it eliminates the potential need to move the truck. WEIGH also saves the last ten weighing operations automatically and can add them up.

Efficiency gains thanks to the return oil utilisation

In the TEC-range, the return oil utilisation system can be turned on and off manually to increase efficiency. The return oil utilisation system uses a load holding valve to divert the oil from the piston rod end to the pressure line instead of the tank. The resulting oil flow increase ramps up the extension speed considerably. The special design of the cylinders also increases the speed. By contrast, the crane operator can turn off the return oil utilisation system if a task requires enhanced power rather than increased speed.

All technical information at a Glace

The new PK 55.002 TEC 5 and PK 58.002 TEC 7 cranes are versatile. Thanks to multiple standard and optional features, properties can be added to fit their specific applications.

Souce:

The post Palfinger launches new crane models appeared first on North America FarmQuip Magazine.

On show at bauma 2019 in combination with the Master Drive

Tailored for use in construction, the EPSILON M12L crane from the Next Epsolution series impresses with its robust design in conjunction with technical and visual refinement. These can be experienced especially in the Master Drive, the top seat as a multifunction command centre, which enables handling of construction materials and waste of the highest order.

Reach, robustness and serviceability – thanks to the internal, protected hose guide and the perfectly placed service openings the EPSILON M12L is perfectly suited for operations with clamshell grabbers in the construction industry. The M12L has a long, telescopic main boom and a tremendous working geometry. In addition, it is characterised by an outstanding hook height and high speed, which raises productivity in terms of loading and unloading even further.

The M series represents the medium-duty class of EPSILON cranes in this model range. With lifting capacities of 10 to 13 tonnes metre, this class is ideally suited to use on construction sites. Mounted on a skip and equipped with hydraulic stabiliser legs that can be tilted up through 180°, the EPSILON M12L crane can also easily be lowered when required – which makes it even more versatile. Furthermore, both the stabilisers and all the crane functions can be operated by cable control, meaning that the crane operator can also control them from the ground at any time.

Full control in any situation: Master Drive

From the crane operator’s seat, the Master Drive in particular offers extensive comfort and a high degree of user-friendliness during everyday use. The ergonomic design of the mechanically suspended top seat ensures a high level of seat comfort, and all functions are immediately within reach with the multifunction armrest. The hydraulic servo control enables particularly sensitive operation with full performance.

The newly developed crane operator protection roof EPSHOOD ensures optimum protection on the job. Thanks to the folding mechanism and technical thermoplastic, it keeps wind, rain and sun at arm’s length allowing the crane operator to concentrate on the essentials.

Source: Palfinger.com

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