02.09.2014

Special low headroom crane

T H White has supplied a special mobile Palfinger industrial crane for Jaguar Land Rover’s new engine plant near Wolverhampton.

The crane division of T H White has supplied a Palfinger articulated crane mounted on a special mobile industrial chassis to Jaguar Land Rover’s new £500 million engine plant near Wolverhampton.

The massive new production facility is scheduled to commence production of the company’s next-generation aluminium engines in 2015. Landover subcontractor Sibco was looking for a highly manoeuvrable mobile crane with a combination of high lifting capacity, long outreach and the ability to work with a very limited headroom- as low as 2.7 metres. The crane is also equipped with a winch for working in areas with more headroom.

T H White managed to solve the challenge with an innovative solution, using an ultra low-profile Kran-Mobil chassis designed and built by the German manufacturer Zunhammer to which it mounted a Palfinger PK 34002-SH articulated loader crane. The resulting mobile crane can lift 1,420kg at up to 16.7 metres. Most extraordinary of all is that it can do so at a height of less than 2.7 metres and measures just 1.9 metres wide by 4.5 metres long when stowed, while the footprint with fully extended outriggers is 6.4 x 6.4 metres.
Please register to see all images

The special low headroom crane is compact and highly manouverable

The battery powered chassis offers all-wheel steering operating in five modes:- front wheel steering only for normal ‘road’ driving, rear wheel steer only, co-ordinated steer, crab steer for sideways travel, and circular drive where all wheels turn a full 90 degrees, allowing on-the-spot rotation. The minimum turning circle is approximately 3,350mm.The crane has a travel speed of up to four miles an hour, although this is halved when operated via it remote controller.

Although the Kran-Mobil chassis concept is not new, the latest machines are built to a very different specification to the original models. “When we first developed the Kran-Mobil in 1994 it was powered by a diesel-hydraulic drive,” said Zunhammer’s Stefan Dercks. “The main problem with this was the noise and high CO2 emissions which made it unsuitable for indoor use. Today the Kran-Mobile is all-electric, with separate motors for driving and steering, powered by a chassis-mounted battery. A single charge is sufficient for five hours driving.”

Mark Rigby, director of T H White’s crane division added: “As the T H White group has a Land Rover dealership we were delighted that this initial order should come from JLR, but the possible applications for the Palfinger/Kran-Mobil combination are very wide ranging. Anywhere that heavy loads need to be manoeuvred with precision in confined spaces – especially where there is low headroom – this unit is ideal.”
Please register to see all images

The crane has a maximum reach of almost 17 metres