Concord Cranes has deployed its advanced lifting services and expertise to assist with the refurbishment of a fixed digester jib crane in Richards Bay, KwaZulu-Natal.

This complex project, involving what is deemed to be one of the highest structures in the region, was completed in May 2018. The fixed digester jib crane weighs 22 t, totalling a height of 22 m when assembled. It is located at a major paper and packaging production facility. The crane has a horizontal member or boom that supports a movable hoist to a base-mounted pillar. This type of crane is specifically built on top of the digester to remove certain parts.

Bella Mollentze, Concord Richards Bay Branch Manager, comments: “It required careful planning and attention to detail to ensure that the lifts were conducted safely.” Due to the height of the lift, Concord’s in-house team of experts plotted the lift on the Liebherr Computer Control (LICCON) work planner, which was an integral part of the project.

“We believe that we can offer in-depth experience, resources, and the necessary advanced equipment to undertake such complex projects. In this particular case, we used a Liebherr LTM1400 mobile crane with a main boom and luffer configuration. This provided the necessary 115 m tip height to erect the jib crane successfully on top of the digester,” Mollentze explains.

The seven-axle LTM 1400 crane is one of the most compact representatives of its class, and extraordinarily manoeuvrable due to its active rear-axle steering. The ballast radius can be reduced significantly for use in constricted areas by simply moving the counterweight. With a maximum load capacity of 400 t, a 60 m boom lift, a maximum hoist height of 130 m, and a maximum hoist radius of 100 m, this crane is ideal for a range of heavy lifting projects across diverse industrial sectors.

“This project has, once again, demonstrated the ability of our Concord team to overcome logistical and technical challenges in order to ensure that our customers’ specific project requirements are met in the most cost-effective, safe, and innovative manner possible,” Mollentze concludes.