Monday, April 2, 2018

Lattice Boom Mobile Cranes, e.g. Gottwald AK912

As the world's largest, the Liebherr LR 13000 crane has its own page.

VEMA's Gottwald AK912
[1985, 1200 ton]
Note the date of 1985. Back then the biggest mobile cranes using telescoping booms were probably pretty small. Even today's largest telescopic boom, Liebherr LTM 11200-9.1, is the same capacity as this old crane --- 1200 tons.
John W. Coke posted
Gottwald AMK 1000-103, until 2007 the heaviest lifting mobile crane in the world.
Arthur Overdijk posted
Gottwald AK-912-GT

Steve Robinson posted four photos with the comment: "GOTTWALD AK 912 GT."
Russell Johnson This was in the day when a big crane showed up to make a lift they actually got [stuff] out of the way and made it a priority. Now it’s just another day as you have 32 trucks at the gate waiting for them to move a bunch of scaffold or build a pad.

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Back when the AK912 was being designed, TV's were still running on vacuum tubes. Not having a full grasp into the stress's and strengths of materials back in the day, just about every plate cut to go into it was a little more than was thought was needed, A 1000t mobile crane was a ground breaking achievement. They were extremely well built. Even in the early 80's it was thought that the capacity could top 1200t, nobody would dare stamp it.
Today with Rockwell hardness test, laser metallurgical testing, the type and content of a material can easily be assessed. With engineers knowing exactly what material's are where and its composition, the crane can be loaded into a computer and tested.
[search for "Lotsacrane" on dhsdiecast]

ale-heavylift
More specifications

The one owned by ALE (Abnormal Load Engineering) caught on fire. They salvaged it by scrapping the truck carrier and converting it to a pedestal crane that is transported with a standard lowboy. But in 2011 it fell off a transport trailer. I can't find if it was salvaged from that accident.

HeavyLift has photos of an AK912 at a tank farm job.

A sales entry has several photos of an AK912 that you can scroll through including these two:
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b



John's comment: "Liebherr truck crane." Note this design has eight axles.

John W. Coke posting
John W. Coke posting

4 comments:

  1. I have photos of ALE 912 when in Baldwins own a ship.lifting a450 ton 100 year old swing bridge at Northwich Cheshire england,in 1998.

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  2. I have photos of ALE 912 in Baldwins ownaship, lifting a 450 ton 100 year old swing bridge in 1998 at Northwich Cheshire england.

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  3. working in Qatar world cup 2022 new port project and cant believe seeing a 2 ton mobile crane

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  4. John Coke's pic of the Liebherr telescopic is a 650-ton model; Guay have a couple of these as well as the Demag equivalent and the big Liebherr LTM 11200, which is working just behind our place these days. The Gottwald was a pioneering achievement, a real precedent and its longevity is phenomenal. Only a few were produced and they were all slightly different. Some were returned to the factory in Dusseldorf to be modified/uprated/modernized a few years after first entering service. One such modification involved making it possible to break down the slewing upper into two sections for compliance with evolving road loading regulations.

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