Liebherr Drilling Rigs Deployed for Plant Expansion at Airbus Defence and Space

The company Kurt Motz Baubetriebsgesellschaft GmbH & Co KG is carrying out foundation work for a new production building for the “Integrated Technology Center (ITC)” at the premises of Airbus Defence and Space, a division of the Airbus Group. Two Liebherr drilling rigs type LB 28-320 and LB 36-410 are in operation for the contracted deep foundation company in Immenstaad. The machines are part of a package of six new Liebherr LB devices for the company Kurt Motz. The official handover took place directly on the Airbus jobsite.

Using Kelly equipment the machines are installing cased drilled piles for the foundations of the new building, which is an extension of the technology centre and measures approximately 70 x 60m. The single piles are 40 metres long and have diameters of 750 and 900mm.

Foundation work involves a total drilling length of 7900m. A particular challenge is posed by the closeness to Lake Constance. In order to avoid groundwater and seawater a sheet pile wall was erected using a Liebherr piling and drilling rig type LRB 125.

Innovative Rotary Drives in Operation

The Liebherr drilling rigs on site in Immenstaad are equipped with rotary drives, types BAT 320 and BAT 410. The BAT series of rotary drives, which has been developed by Liebherr, provides the necessary torque for a multitude of drilling applications. The automatic torque regulation and the continuous speed optimization react flexibly to different soil conditions. This ensures optimum drilling progress.

Economic and User-Friendly Drilling Rigs

A decisive advantage of the LB 28-320 and LB 36-410 drilling rigs is their smooth and precise control, which provides excellent positioning in all fields of application. The electro-hydraulic proportional control enables several movements to be carried out simultaneously and with utmost precision.

The LB 28-320 has a robust leader, which easily absorbs both the rotary drive’s torque of 320kNm, as well as the 40-tonne push and pull force of the rope crowd system. This ensures especially quick work cycles. The parallel kinematics of the leader system allows for a large working radius as well as accurate and stable operation.

The LB 36-410 is the next largest model in the Liebherr series of drilling rigs and has a torque of 410kNm. Significant advantages of this machine, which weighs 127 tonnes, are the easy transport and the quick set-up times on the jobsite. Despite a large machine class the uppercarriage is compact and designed for a small swing radius. This allows for work to be carried out efficiently even in restricted spaces.