Logistical masterpiece in the Alps

The dismantling of a huge motorway bridge between Grenoble and Turin by a Liebherr LR 11350 crawler crane marked the end of an infrastructure problem in the Franco-Italian border region that had lasted for over four decades.

Service 24 / 7

Our work is not done when we deliver the cranes to our part

Reaching the goal in tandem

Infrastructure expansion on the American east coast.

Look back

From Ehingen to Baghdad: Heavy transport around 50 years ago

Cool design

With our new Liebherr LTM 1110-5.2 mobile crane, we are opening a new chapter in Ehingen’s history of crane technology.

Borger pulls some very big strings

The brand is a household name. Its locations are pilgrimage sites for fans of rock-tastic guitar riffs and prototypical American burgers.

Looping the loop for Europe

Our mobile cranes are on the move all over the world. They reliably carry out a wide variety of tasks with all kinds of loads hanging from their crane hooks.

Under high voltage

Building a warehouse almost ten metres high from prefabricated concrete elements is nothing unusual in itself. However, this routine job becomes a daring undertaking if the project must be carried out directly under several live high voltage lines with a ground clearance of less than 19 metres.

Whatʼs missing from the picture?

Whatʼs missing from the photo showing a future housing development in Greater London?

At the harbour's edge

Dawn is breaking over the islandʼs sleepy capital. Itʼs still quiet in Palma de Mallorca – only in the harbour are great things on the horizon.

Very busy

We have been manufacturing crawler cranes with telescopic booms here in Ehingen since 2005. In its early years, this crane type was overshadowed by our traditional mobile and crawler cranes.

Big pipe

To drive forward the energy transition, huge wind turbines are needed at sea to harvest powerful sea winds and supply green electricity for the mainland. The dimensions of modern offshore wind turbines are now enormous. So are the challenges for handling their gigantic components.

Final touchdown

The skies above the barracks in Altenstadt in southern Germany can often be rather busy. After all, this Bundeswehr site, around 60 kilometres from Munich is a training centre for paratroopers, aircraft handling personnel and air carriers.

Back to the roots

Returning to the place of your birth after many years can be rather emotional.

Heavy? No problem!

“There’s nothing more on 4!”. That was the slogan when we launched our LTM 1120-4.1 mobile crane.

Cranes protecting the environment

A bridge measuring around 160 metres in length was installed over the Bolintxu Valley near Bilbao, which was absolutely untouched by the process.

LR 12500-1.0: The game changer

A uniquely wide boom and the specially designed T-shape turntable make up the centrepiece of this powerful-2,500 tonne machine.

The family keeps on growing

The newest member of our LRT crane family comes as "The toughest in the roughest".

The master of all roads

Describing a mobile crane as a “lightweight” is actually a contradiction in terms. But we are doing it anyway because our new LTM 1100-5.3 is the lightest 5-axle mobile crane in history, giving it maximum mobility through consistent lightweight construction.

World record at the start

There has never been anything like it – a mobile crane that can carry a 90 metre telescopic boom with an axle load of just twelve tonnes.

Two power packs on Sardinia

Reports of what at the time was the newly discovered coronavirus first started to appear in the news in January 2020. At around the same time, three ships tied up against the quay in the port of Cagliari, the largest town on the Italian Mediterranean island of Sardinia.

For all cases well equipped

Our fire service cranes hoist, rescue and recover. Some of them can even fight fires.

Back to the future – the development of the LICCON crane control system

As we know, the future is based on the past, so in this edition we want to take a look at the history of Liebherr crane control systems.

“Ready quickly and really powerful”

It is almost exactly one year ago that the first of our LTM 1150-5.3 mobile cranes was driven out of our crane factory here in Ehingen.

Zero emission, full power

The accelerating climate revolution demands drive concepts to be used in the construction industry which reduce emissions of greenhouse gases.

Smart and stable with Y

It is the largest privately financed infrastructure project in Europe – the new Terminal 3 is currently being built at the southern side of Frankfurt Airport.

High tech from the Kaiser’s time

On the morning of 8 January 2016, as on every other school day, a host of children on their bicycles headed towards the suspension ferry on the edge of the town of Rendsburg. The shortest route to the schools in the northern German town was over the Kiel Canal. On that January morning, however, the route to school initially ended at the boarding point.

Déjà-vu at Ammersee

Wind, wind, wind. Everybody involved with cranes or jobs with them knows very well that wind is a massive topic when we want a crane to work.

Simply superb!

We have added something new to our well-stocked, wide-ranging crane portfolio here at the Liebherr Plant in Ehingen.

Tinkering on the crane of the future

How does the future look? Will there ever be flying cars? Perhaps flying cranes? Who knows...

So close to the sky

A new crane makes its debut and is already the world champion! 90 meter telescopic boom can be carried on 6 axles – the first ever crane to do so.

No signs of old age

With a great deal of logistics work and an extremely ambitious timetable, Hamburg-based crane contractor Thömen installed the abutments for a railway bridge near Flensburg in just three days and then installed the new bridge structure on them in a tandem hoist.

From accident-damaged crane to jewel

From large to small, old to new, on wheels or crawlers – the daily bread of our colleagues in the Repair Department is the refurbishment of used cranes.

Stable even in a stiff breeze

More powerful and stable in the wind – that is a rough summary of the main benefits that Liebherr has delivered for its customers in the form of its innovative SX2 and SX3 boom systems for crawler and lattice boom cranes.

Big in Japan

Roughly 30 kilometers from the city center of Tokyo, the Japanese capital, a full fleet of crawler cranes is on the move. But – what is a full fleet? We are talking about eight crawler cranes, manufactured by Liebherr in Ehingen (Germany), as well as more than five other smaller crawler cranes.

Salvaging a boulder in Emsland

At some point in 1950, the then fourteen year old Josef Dörtelmann was trudging over a field owned by his farmer family in Emsland with his father’s plough horse. The boy and horse were tilling the soil in the field not far from the village of Hüven, when the ploughshare unexpectedly struck the tip of a large rock buried just under the surface.

Liebherr crane cleans the façade of the Federal Chancellery

We all know the frustration – you’ve just had the façade of your house freshly rendered and already you can find areas that could do with either minor or major freshening up work. The official seat of German Chancellor Angela Merkel is not immune from this type of problem.

The merging of two worlds

A crane which will change the world of crawler cranes. A crane which combines transport benefits and performance. A crane which links the elements of wind and earth. A crane which combines the benefits of two classes. Powerful, economical and pioneering.

More power – LTM 1750-9.1 with 800 t upgrade

Almost exactly one year ago, we announced that we would be upgrading our LTM 1750-9.1. We completely recalculated the 9-axle model, which was first launched in 2012, and actually made it into an 800 tonne crane.

Swabian power for Heligoland

For crane operator Jens Bodschwinna, this story starts with a bit of nostalgia. His Liebherr LTL 1050 crane, which started work at the Tönning site of the Waterways and Shipping Office (WSA) on the German North Sea island of Heligoland in 1992, is due to be decommissioned in the near future.

The curtain has fallen

At the start of 2020, the Sales, Marketing and Product Management Departments in Ehingen were planning to unveil the new LTM 1150-5.3 mobile crane during the second half of the year at the autumn trade shows – as normal, in other words.

VarioBallast® the problem-solver

Our new LTM 1650-8.1 is off and running. The successor to the legendary Liebherr LTM 1500-8.1 has been working on construction sites around the world for several weeks. The first mobile crane of this type in southern Germany was faced with its initial challenge at the beginning of November.

Building bridges at a world cultural heritage site

The extremely popular “Miniatur Wunderland” in Hamburg occupies an area of 1500 square metres holding almost 16 kilometres of railway track, impressively reflecting painstakingly reproduced landscapes from the northern hemisphere.

Connecting the elements

The LR 1700-1.0 joins two worlds. And also two elements – wind and earth. With a wind power boom it sets new standards in the 600-700 tonne class for wind power. And as an industrial crane it impresses by being the most powerful crane on the market.

The Bernabéu of Madrid

The professionals at Spanish championship record holders, Real Madrid CF have left the pitch. A whole team of cranes and construction machinery is currently engaged in a fascinating encounter at the iconic Estadio Santiago Bernabéu in Madrid.

First class, second hand

To connect one with the other, we have been buying back used cranes from our customers since the seventies and reselling them as second hand. This business sector is so strategically important to us that for the last 40 years it has been managed by a dedicated department established specifically for the purpose.

What about a little bit more?

“Way out there” can mean a few different things for a crane: Objectives and visions. Booms and powerful jibs. Or steps in its evolution which are almost revolutionary. It is therefore very fitting that when Kevin Long heard Lord Huron’s song “Way out there” in October 2017, he was working on the future of wind turbine erection jobs for the USA in North Carolina.

The first ever LTM 1110-5.1 goes to Spain

We unveiled our new 110 tonne crane at the Bauma held in April last year in Munich with the slogan “Prepared for every task!”. Since then, our Technical Testing Department has studied the prototypes in more detail, the final tweaks have been made and serial production has started.

“One hundred percent variable”

Our new LR 1800-1.0 is up and running! The first ten units of this highly flexible crawler crane, which can be modified for lots of different sectors, have already been delivered to business partners in Spain, the USA and Asia.

There's nothing more on 4!

Encouraged by a campaign in digital media, lots of crane and machine fans were searching Germany’s roads at the beginning of January for the latest star in the Liebherr fleet – one with the same flair as a pair of American trousers.

In the land of the ibex, chamois and marmot

A massive project is currently underway in the Swiss Alps. A new arched dam wall is to be built on the Grimselsee reservoir in the Bernese Mountains at an altitude of 1900 metres over the next six years. A container village has now been established for the workers and specialists who will build the new dam wall at the high altitude site.

The dream of the international crane operators licence

Book a car online before travelling, collect it at the airport, show your driving licence, get in and drive off. That is how cars are hired in every country in the world, even those where the cars drive on the other side of the road. However, as far as a crane operators licence is concerned, we are still a very long way from an internationally accepted testing process.

Cranes and ocean giants

Because the demand is not just for more, but ever larger ocean-going giants which can provide accommodation and pleasure for as many as 6000 passengers, some shipyards are slowly coming towards the limits of their capacities. This means that shipbuilders are becoming increasingly reliant on mobile cranes. A shipyard report from Emsland.

En route to the customer

In 2014, Liebherr-Werk Ehingen GmbH celebrated the delivery of its 30,000th mobile crane. Since then, an average of 1700 new cranes have been added to the number per year which means that we will reach the 40,000 mark in 2020. The new cranes and more than 200 used cranes as well as over 70,000 shipments of spare parts are supplied every year to the far ends of the Earth.

Cleaning job in a chemical plant

From setting up the site at the reactor to lifting in environmental service employees, to the (dis)assembly of diverse scaffolding, the MK 140 Plus mobile construction crane has been in constant operation at a chemical plant. In the German city of Stade, a reactor was shut down, cleaned, serviced and overhauled.

New giant will save thousands of kilometres

A new record-breaker has been on site since the summer in the industrial port of Neuf-Brisach, a French town not far from Colmar – the LR 11000 is the most powerful crawler crane in France. The 1,000-tonne heavy duty crane will be used to handle industrial goods such as gas turbines and mining excavators on the Franco-German border between Basel and Strasbourg – saving several thousand kilometres of road transport.

Journey into the eternal ice

A logistical and technical masterpiece: a mobile crane is delivered from Munich to its work site on the southernmost continent of the world. Another challenge came in the form of strict environmental regulations. Ships are not permitted to dock directly at the pier next to the research station to avoid disturbing the penguin population that lives on the island.

A colossus on the quayside

The skyline of the industrial port of Rostock has had a new landmark since the summer – one of the most powerful land-based gantry cranes in the world is now located on the Liebherr-MCCtec Rostock GmbH site in the form of the TCC 78000. With its boom fully luffed, the colossus reaches a height of 164 metres. The crane can hoist loads weighing up to 1600 tonnes – with a radius of 36 metres.

Steel colossus on the hook

Just three hours rather than the normal 18 and no need to close the waterway – all made possible by the most powerful conventional crawler crane in the world. Mexican crane and heavy haulage contractor ESEASA used its Liebherr LR 13000 crawler crane for the first time to load oil platforms onto barges at the port city of Tampico.

V-frame proves itself in practice

Our LR 11000 has successfully completed its first jobs using the innovative, highly flexible “V-frame” ballasting system. The 1000-tonne crane operated by Swiss crane logistics contractor Emil Egger AG completed a spectacular bridge hoist near Lausanne and also removed an old lightship from the River Rhine in Basel. If the V-frame had not been used, these two crane jobs would only have been possible at significantly higher cost.

Now even more powerful – the LTM 1750-9.1 gets an 800t upgrade

The nine-axle LTM 1750-9.1 mobile crane can now hoist even heavier loads. The use of refined static calculation methods means that lifting capacity values have been increased across almost the entire working range. This has converted the crane into an 800-tonne machine. The model name LTM 1750-9.1 will stay the same.

MyLiebherr – your personal customer portal for Liebherr online services

Extensive service and a wide range of additional offerings are now available to customers using this platform. Manuela Kovacic and Oskar Thanner, who work in the Customer Service Department at Liebherr in Ehingen, explain what MyLiebherr is and what you will be missing if you do not use it.

The LR 11350 and LR 11000 working in tandem

“Never before in almost 120 years of its history has such a heavy item been handled at our Rhine port using cranes”, explains Jürgen Preiss. The load that he is referring to was the core piece of a gigantic tunnel drilling machine. Two powerful crawler cranes from the Liebherr Plant in Ehingen were required to tackle this job.

The ultimate machine on eight axles!

Children with famous parents often have a hard life. They are under heavy pressure from birth and are expected to be successful. That is exactly the situation facing the new LTM 1650-8.1, which Liebherr unveiled at the Bauma trade fair. And it’s all because it is the successor to the living legend that is the LTM 1500-8.1. With a volume of almost 600 units, it is already the best-selling large crane of all time.

Premiere with an Alpine

The era of one of the most successful crane models ever produced at the Liebherr plant in Ehingen is slowly but surely coming to an end. However, its successor has not just been waiting in the wings for some time, it is in fact also already conquering construction sites around the world – the Liebherr LTM 1230-5.1. The new crane celebrated its premiere in April in Switzerland.

A crane job between splendour and megalomania

It may surprise you to learn that there are alternatives to Neuschwanstein. If you want to find out a little more about King Ludwig II of Bavaria and his (credibly recorded) eccentricity, you could do worse than travel to an island in Chiemsee in Bavaria, where the crowds will be somewhat thinner.

Lightweight, long and powerful

“Prepared for every task!” is how Liebherr presented the new LTM 1110-5.1 at the Bauma trade fair. The aim for the design of the new 5-axle crane was to enable it to complete jobs all over the world economically and flexibly. But, of course, it had to be powerful as well.

Field test – the latest engine and emissions technology

Over the last few months, there has hardly been a news bulletin which has not mentioned “particulate pollution” or “diesel bans”. The topics of environmental protection and statutory regulations pose a daily challenge to Liebherr as well.

Building bridges in a nature conservation area

The old railway bridge had spanned the Buchenbach Valley as part of the railway line between Burgstetten and Affalterbach, around 20 kilometres north-east of Stuttgart, for a whole century. The Liebherr LR 11000 crawler crane from Wiesbauer has now replaced the bridge with a temporary structure.

Powerful!

New crawler crane, new transport concept, new ballasting system, new model designation – and truly powerful as well. Liebherr unveiled the LR 1800-1.0 crawler crane at its customer days in 2018. In its basic concept, the 800-tonne crane is designed for jobs in industry.

The mobile crane redesigned

Liebherr unveiled a new 5-axle crane at its customer days in June this year – the LTM 1230-5.1 is extremely versatile, powerful, safe and efficient. And it has a surprising structural steel design.

Power lifting in a steel plant

14 Liebherr cranes carried out a wide range of maintenance work at a steel plant. One of the biggest challenges was to replace an 80-tonne gantry crane track at a great height.

The fascination of models

From really big to absolutely tiny. The world of models has a particular attraction and fascinates almost everybody.

Energy revolution 2.0 – the green electricity storage facility

The "Gaildorf green electricity storage facility" pilot project sees wind turbines combined with a decentralised pumped-storage power plant make green energy storable for the first time, making it available flexibly.

Slow ballast? You've got to be joking

Unbolting rather than unstacking: The innovative VarioTray® ballast system enables the central section of the suspended ballast to be simply unbolted.

Not a vision, a visionary

With its new SX boom system, Liebherr has achieved a significant performance upgrade in terms of hoist height and lifting capacity for its LR 1750/2 and LG 1750 lattice boom cranes.

On your marks

The LTM 1450-8.1 is a genuine all-rounder. Its powerful boom has a large range and can complete crane jobs normally reserved for the 500-tonne class in many areas.

Going to the playground at 60

For almost 60 years the St. Benedikt worked as a liner on the Achensee in Austria. Recently two LTM 1350-6.1 cranes lifted the 82-tonne ship on land after it was replaced by a new one.

The safe alternative

Liebherr now also builds rough-terrain cranes. The LRT 1090-2.1 with a lifting capacity of 90 tonnes and the LRT 1100-2.1 with a lifting capacity of 100 tonnes deliver maximum safety, off-road capability, performance and flexibility.

A new star in the 4-axle sky

The LTM 1090-4.2 is a shining example of sophisticated mobile crane technology – high lifting capacities, variable driving states, ECOdrive, ECOmode, VarioBase®, VarioBallast® and much more make it a flexible, economical, powerful all-rounder.

On the road

Our new narrow-track crawler crane tackles its first job in Portugal

Strong, long and easy

Everyone is already talking about the newcomer. Keep reading for more details.

On behalf of science

Worldwide in lifting operations