LIEBHERR Harbour Cranes

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Posted in: , on 3. May. 2005 - 00:23

May 2, 2005

High on turnover rates, low on fuel consumption –

Facts and figures that speak for the LHM range!

The Danish port of Aabenraa handles approximately 1.4 million tons of cargo per year, and is one of the bigger harbours in the country, located on the east coast of Jutland and near to the German border.

For decades the port has used mostly port cranes for its handling opera-tions. It started with some Jones 971 HLB cranes and continued with LIEBHERR harbour mobile cranes, types LHM 1080, LHM 1120 and LHM 150.

At the end of 2003, the port’s board decided to invest further capital in future business. Port Director Niels Kristiansen stated at that time: “We have been very satisfied with our LIEBHERR cranes, especially with the service we got. Therefore we decided to buy another LIEBHERR crane, type LHM 320 which is designed also for heavy lifts up to 104 tons.”

It goes without saying that this crane can also be used with mechanical grabs, the port’s main business. After using several Martensen grabs, the new crane was equipped with a Peiner grab from SMAG in Germany, with a capacity of 14 m for the handling of gravel, sand and other materials.

The port’s crane drivers have always been highly skilled and very moti-vated, but with the new machine they are reaching record figures! The head of the crane drivers, Lars Östergaard reported: “With the LHM 150 and a 9 m grab and the new LHM 320 with its 14 m grab, we loaded a 27,000 dwt vessel in 14 hours. With the LHM 320 only, we reached an average of 1,500 tons of sand per hour! The newest crane technology as well as updated software from LIEBHERR for grab operation allows such really amazing results.”

These figures show once again that the latest generation harbour mobile cranes from LIEBHERR are no longer just back-up units for “conventional” harbour cranes mounted on rails, but are highly flexible units for all han-dling operations in a modern harbour.

The “investment in the future” has already shown some results. In 2004, the port of Aabenraa could increase the cranes’ turnover by 7% compared with 2003!

In an entirely different field of application LIEBHERR could recently note a highly positive feedback from crane operators as well.

For several months LIEBHERR’s own electronic department had worked on a development of a new software programme aimed at a reduction in fuel consumption. The main features of such an intelligent economy software are variable speeds of the diesel engine (in relation to power output requirements) being as low as possible and an automatic reduction to idle speed when no crane movement is needed. Thereby it has to be stressed that a compensation of the diesel engine’s speed deficiency is assured by a raised pump power in partial load mode.

As the optimal test-field for such latest innovation in LIEBHERR harbour mobile cranes, the Westerlund terminal in Antwerp was chosen, mainly due to the extensive use of its dozen LIEBHERR cranes (3,000 operating hours per crane per year on average with peak figures beyond 4,000 hours).

After the implementation of the economy software at one of its LHM 400’s, the service and maintenance staff of Westerlund accurately checked and recorded the actual fuel consumption of the chosen crane compared to the other ones for a duration of 3 months.

As it turned out, the result was more than surprising. With a reduction in average consumption by approx. 10 litres (!) per running hour i.e. 25%, the conclusion by Mr. Michael Heijlen, Purchase and Maintenance Manager, was as simple as that: “This software must be implemented on all cranes without delay”. As he continued to calculate “Westerlund can realize a saving of approx. 120,000 litres of diesel fuel per year (consolidated for 4 cranes on the leftbank terminal” – in times of constantly growing fuel prices at any rate a substantial argument!

Drawing a conclusion: Whether it is high handling rates or low fuel con-sumption figures that are being requested by crane operators – LIEBHERR harbour mobile cranes provide its constantly growing number of customers with outstanding advantages that are being proven in practical operation on a day-to-day basis!

For more information, please visit:

https://edir.bulk-online.com/profile...rk-nenzing.htm

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