South-Africa-based crane and heavy transport company Allied Crane Hire has acquired the first Liebherr LTM 1230-5.1 mobile crane in the African continent. The 24-year-old company operates more than 80 mobile and crawler cranes, which are mainly used in petrochemicals, mining, wind and solar farms and the construction industry. The company bought its first Liebherr crane 20 years ago.
André Engelbrecht, managing director at Allied Crane Hire, explains: “Crane experts will agree that Liebherr has the best technology in mobile and crawler cranes and is a pioneer in the industry. An important criterion for us in choosing the LTM 1230‑5.1 was its 75-metre telescopic boom. This allows us to do many crane jobs without having to set up a lattice jib. The Liebherr LTM 1230-5.1 is an ideal crane for work in steep positions and at great heights, for example in wind turbine maintenance or petrochemical operations.
With lattice extensions, the LTM‑1230-5.1 reaches a maximum lifting height of 111 metres. Another important purchase criterion for Allied Crane Hire was the Liebherr VarioBallast. The ballast radius of the LTM 1230-5.1 can be adjusted between 4.8 and 5.7 metres.
“Operations in the petrochemical and mining industries are extremely challenging: little space, time pressure and constantly changing conditions. This calls for high flexibility from the cranes,” says Engelbrecht.
The engineers at Liebherr put the VarioBase support technology at the heart of the structural steel construction when creating the concept for the LTM 1230‑5.1. This makes it the first crane to have an asymmetrical support base: The width is 7.4 metres at the front and 8.1 metres at the rear.
“Thanks to VarioBase, it’s now possible to enable really high lifting capacities, especially in the rear working area, over the 8.1 metre wide supports – calculated in real-time by the Liccon controller,” says Erik Benz, head of the mobile and crawler cranes division at Liebherr-Africa. “This new digitalisation option has a major influence on the structural steel technology, while enhancing customer benefit in the form of increased lifting capacities.”
“We call the combination of trapezoidal and variable support base VarioBasePlus”, adds Francois Pretorius, sales representative at Liebherr-Africa. “The single-stage sliding beams at the front are lighter. The weight saved could be used to increase the boom length.”