Lift off

An Executive Interview with Terex Corporation

Klaus Meissner, Director for Terex Cranes Product Integrity explains various applications driving the growing demand for heavy lifting cranes.

“In order to cope with the lifting challenges involved in these construction projects, very efficient and powerful machines are needed, which incur minimal downtime and work cost effectively”
-Klaus Meissner

INFRA. Have you noticed significant changes in the market for your heavy lifting segment?  
Klaus Meissner. As a crane manufacturer we have witnessed a growing demand for our products. Increasing global wealth and population growth has led to much new investment in infrastructure construction in many parts of the world.

INFRA. How far are you affected by these developments?
KM. The energy sector, for example, is a major area of operation for our large crawler cranes. The activities we have noticed recently include the building of new plants in order to extend the supply base as well as the replacement or refurbishment of existing plants in order to make them more efficient and to reduce emissions. We have also seen the development of renewable energy sources such as wind in many different locations. In order to cope with the lifting challenges involved in these construction projects, very efficient and powerful machines are needed, which incur minimal downtime and work cost effectively. This is where the experience of Terex Cranes comes into play.

INFRA. What is the special lifting challenge for your cranes in the erection of wind turbines?
KM. Wind turbines may be located on-shore, near-shore or off-shore. Each location has its own specific requirements:

To erect wind turbines on-shore, heavy loads have to be lifted to a great height on a relatively short radius (e.g. loads of 100t at 100m height and 20m radius). In order to meet these specific job requirements, our standard configuration cranes are provided with additional equipment.

Wind turbines are getting larger and larger, and they are sometimes erected in areas where the terrain is rough and access is difficult. For example, there may be width restrictions on access roads for environmental reasons.

The knowledgeable Terex Cranes team has helped our customers deal with these specific challenges in various ways, for example by developing a special mid-section of the undercarriage for our 600t crawler crane, Terex Demag CC 2800-1. This ‘narrow track’ setup allows the crane to travel on narrow construction roads (5m width) from one wind turbine erection site to another and even to travel fully erected in quite hilly areas.  

INFRA. What are the special requirements for wind turbine erection near- and off-shore?
KM. Very large wind turbines are currently being erected close to the shoreline in several countries. They benefit from higher wind speeds and a wind profile over open water, which has less disturbance, and are therefore more efficient. These wind turbines require large cranes to erect the tower and lift the nacelle and rotor blades. A typical lift these days might be up to 300t at 30m radius, to a height of up to 140m.

For off-shore locations, Terex Cranes provides engineering support where special solutions are needed. For example, two Terex Demag crawler cranes are set up on towers on Danish ships that are being used to transport and erect wind turbines in off-shore locations.

INFRA. What heavy-lift challenges do you face in other construction areas?
KM. Other application areas include the erection and refurbishment of nuclear and conventional thermal power plants, the erection of gas condensation reactors, and general construction.

As far as general construction is concerned, our big crawler cranes are used in a wide array of applications, such as lifting-in prefabricated highway parts or bridges. One recent example is a Terex Demag CC 6800, which was used to replace an old railway bridge in Nyköping, Sweden. Using conventional methods, the railway line would have been closed for more than a month. The use of our Terex Demag CC 6800 lattice boom crane with 1250 t lifting capacity reduced this period to less than a week.

INFRA. How is Terex Cranes positioned in the heavy-lifting market?
KM. Terex Cranes offers a full line of lifting equipment tailored to a broad range of lifting needs. As far as big crawler cranes are concerned, Terex Cranes offers highly efficient equipment that provide a great return on investment and can carry out particularly large lifts in infrastructure development. Through its engineering support, Terex facilitates continuous improvement as well as special solutions that are developed to meet clients’ needs.