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Precision Work: Viktor Baumann GmbH Uses Terex® Superlift 3800 Lattice Boom Crawler Crane to Lift Large Press Out of Factory
ZWEIBRÜCKEN, October 13th, 2014 – “It really was a matter of centimeters” says Stefan Oerter when explaining the challenge involved in lifting three press components out of an SGL Carbon factory in Bonn. Oerter is part of the technical field staff employed by crane service provider Viktor Baumann. The Bornheim, Germany-based company relied on the Terex® Superlift 3800 crawler crane, as well as on its manufacturer’s assistance, in order to carry out the required precision work.
The crane service provider was using its Terex Superlift 3800 crane for the very first time. In fact, the company ordered the crane from Terex just five weeks before the project and picked it up, with the desired configuration and paintwork, right on the day when it had to start being set up. To transport the carrier to the work site, Viktor Baumann used its own heavy goods vehicles: The basic machine, including the assembled A-frame, was transported by a nine-axle vehicle, while two five-axle vehicles took care of the tracks. “We didn’t even remove the winches from the basic unit before heading back to the work site, which means we were traveling with a total weight of just under 94 tonnes (103.6 US tons),” explains Oerter, who was responsible for planning the project. The company had the remaining components shipped in 40-tonne trucks.
three days were allocated for setting up the Terex Superlift 3800 unit at the site. “And we were able to get it done on time, even though space was really at a premium,” reports Oerter. The Terex crane’s ease of setup was one of the factors that made this possible: “When setting up the crane, you could tell that its components had been carefully engineered and designed to have the smallest weight possible. That enabled us to assemble the entire Superlift 3800 unit at the factory premises with a comparably small 220-tonne (242.5 US ton) assist crane, even though we had very little space to work with,” Oerter explains. A total of five people set up the crane, including Terex technicians Peter Laduch and Gerald Skrotzki, whom the Terex plant sent to help with the Superlift 3800 crane’s debut. Due to the fact that there was not much space available at the site, a fine-honed logistics strategy was required in order to be able to quickly set up the machine. “Since we were only able to get one truck at a time to the place where we would be setting up the crane, we had to load and drive up the trucks in such a way that we would be able to assemble the delivered components directly,” explain Laduch and Skrotzki, who work as service technicians at Terex Cranes.
Precision work with just the right touch
Thanks to the perfect preparation work and the assistance of both Terex service technicians, the Baumann team was able to have the crane ready to go right on time. And it was important, as the upcoming lifts held their challenges: A total of three large components belonging to the enormous press had to be lifted out from the SGL plant in three days. Two of these components weighed 270 tonnes (297.6 US tons), while the lighter one, if it could be called that, came in at 200 tonnes (220.4 US tons). In order to handle these lifts, the team set up the crane with an SSL configuration, a heavy 48-meter (157.5 ft) main boom, and a 36-meter (118.1 ft) SL mast. 165 tonnes (181.9 US tons) of counterweight were placed on the crane’s superstructure, with 320 tonnes (352.7 US tons) on the SL counterweight tray. With this configuration, the Superlift 3800 crane was well prepared to lift the press components at a working radius of 26 meters (85.3 ft).
After the preparations, the crane operator’s touch and the signalman’s judgment were integral to the lift: the press was located in between other plant equipment, meaning that the loads would have five – maybe six – centimeters of space around them at certain points during the lifts. “It was absolutely vital to prevent the components from swinging around while they were being lifted. If they had, their enormous weight would have caused damage to the production equipment surrounding them,” says Oerter. “However, the Superlift 3800 can be operated with such laser-like precision that there was no danger of anything going wrong at any moment,” reports crane operator Dennis Ferber.
Technical capabilities used to their full extent
Baumann’s Superlift 3800 crane passed its first test with flying colors. This project required the crawler crane to put many of its capabilities to use: The crane not only had to walk with load, but its working radius, as well as that of the Superlift, was changed during the lifts, and the Terex Variolift system proved to be particularly helpful. “The bottom line is that our first project with our new Superlift 3800 showed that we chose the right crane – both in terms of the machine’s performance and of the top-notch services provided by the manufacturer. In fact, Terex provided us with invaluable support all the way from the purchase, through project planning, to the lifts themselves,” Oerter happily sums up.
About the Terex® Superlift 3800 lattice boom crawler crane
The 650 tonne (716 US t) Terex® Superlift 3800 lattice boom crawler crane features a maximum load moment of 8.484 meter tonnes and is designed to provide its owners excellent return on investment. Every component is designed for worldwide transportation reducing erection times and the need for additional equipment. A wide array of safety features, including the award winning Terex fall protection system, come standard. The Superlift 3800 crawler crane is available with an integrated wind kit in a universal main boom system, which allows it to erect wind turbines of 117 meters (384 ft) without using the available superlift configuration. In this configuration, LH 114 m + 12 m LF, the main boom can be erected without employing an assist crane.
The ergonomic cab design provides operators with an excellent working environment, it was developed with extensive feedback gathered from customer workshops, leading industrial stylists and experts in ergonomics.
The Superlift 3800 lattice boom crawler crane conforms to both, the European norm EN 13000 and the US standard ASME B30.5. It can lift a maximum load of 650 tonnes (716 US t) at a radius of 5 to 12 meters (16 to 39 ft).
About Viktor Baumann GmbH & Co. KG
Led by the slogan “Always on the move: where tradition and innovation make heavy easy,” Viktor Baumann GmbH & Co. KG provides its customers with integral solutions that range all the way from planning and logistics to performing projects and taking care of industrial assembly jobs. The company’s branches in Bornheim and Leipzig take good care of its “Cranes” division by offering services for a wide range of industries and projects, including civil engineering, building and bridge construction, erecting wind turbines, and plant construction. For this purpose, Baumann relies on a modern, efficient, and powerful fleet that ranges from compact mobile cranes for indoor projects to several large cranes with lifting capacities of up to 650 tonnes.
For more information, please visit www.viktor-baumann.de
About Terex
Terex Corporation is a lifting and material handling solutions company reporting in five business segments: Aerial Work Platforms, Construction, Cranes, Material Handling & Port Solutions and Materials Processing. Terex manufactures a broad range of equipment serving customers in various industries, including the construction, infrastructure, manufacturing, shipping, transportation, refining, energy, utility, quarrying and mining industries. Terex offers financial products and services to assist in the acquisition of Terex equipment through Terex Financial Services. Terex uses its website (www.terex.com) and Facebook page (www.facebook.com/TerexCorporation) to make information available to its investors and the market.
