The first job awaiting the new Liebherr LR 1750/2 crawler crane operated by Fanger Kran AG was a demanding one in central Switzerland near Lucerne. The crane had to handle a gross load of around 270 tonnes to replace a 30-metre cylinder. In a very constricted space in the production plant of a manufacturer of wooden materials, the job was only possible by moving the crane whilst it held the load.
With its purchase of this new powerful 750-tonne class crawler crane, Fanger Kran AG opened a whole new chapter in the history of lifting equipment stationed in Switzerland. At the same time the family-run company remained true to its tradition – when it purchased a Liebherr LR 1400 crane in 1997, Fanger also presented the most powerful crawler crane in Switzerland at the time. It was used to complete the hoisting work for many large Swiss projects such as bridge and tunnel construction work. The new machine will now replace this old crane which is almost twenty years old.
The Fanger team led by Project Manager Josef Waser was confronted with a tricky task for the crane's first job. An enormous cylinder in the production plant of a wooden materials manufacturer had to be replaced in difficult conditions and under time pressure. Because the plant's production had to be stopped for the duration of the work, for the customer it was extremely important to have the job completed quickly and smoothly.
Before the old cylinder was hoisted out of the plant, an auxiliary platform first had to be hoisted in and installed. After the steel drum had been pulled out of the plant onto this platform, the hanging gear with a weight of around 30 tonnes was attached to the load. To hoist the gigantic tube out of the production plant, the radius of 31 metre had to be reduced slightly and a total of 270 tonnes had to be hoisted to an initial hook height of 64 metres. Only in this position the crawler gear could be carefully set in motion. Whilst the crane completed the distance of around 15 metres, the massive steel cylinder was swung over silos and factory buildings and then deposited on the ground.
The LR 1750/2 crawler crane was fitted with the remarkable figure of 575 tonnes of ballast for this job and for the installation of the new component two days later. The suspended ballast on the derrick boom alone weighed 360 tonnes, which is close to maximum.