17/09/2021 06:05 Liebherr Cranes Keep Big Wheels Turning | E & MJ

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Liebherr Cranes Keep Big Wheels

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June 2013 | Features SPOTLIGH
T
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 CAT …
In a carefully choreographed
 maneuver, three cranes lifted, turned
and positioned a 140-mt replacement
 wheel for one of the world’s largest
excavators SUBSCRIB
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With a 200-mt-capacity on this site, and how you can
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lifted this 140-mt bucket

wheel off its assembly table. DIGITAL
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17/09/2021 06:05 Liebherr Cranes Keep Big Wheels Turning | E & MJ

Mobile cranes owned by Breuer &

Wasel are a common sight at the
Hambach open-cast mine in Germany
—in fact, seven units operated by the
heavy load logistics company from
Bergheim are permanently stationed
there, at what is regarded as the
largest brown coal open-cast mine in
the country. During a recent
maintenance event, one of the mine’s

bucket wheel overburden excavators View Digital

was scheduled to be fitted with a new Edition
140-metric ton (mt) wheel, and three
large Liebherr mobile cranes were sent
to the site to assist the on-site fleet
in this operation.

Follow

 CALENDA
R



With the assembly base removed,
the transporter

approaches as the cranes

maneuver the wheel into

position for loading.

Support from Breuer & Wasel was

crucial during this procedure, as well
as with a similar procedure involving
the mine’s other bucket wheel
excavator three years ago.
Replacement of the second
This website uses
excavator’s cookies
bucket to improve
wheel was thesite functionality and to
provide you with
culmination ofaabetter browsing
general overhaulexperience.
of Detailed
information
the giant on the usewhich
machine, of cookies
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three
decline
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after 33 yearsinofour Privacy Policy. By using this site
service.
or Weighing
clicking onin"Accept andof
at a total Close," you
13,000 mtconsent to the use of
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and standing 96 m high and 200 m

long, ‘Excavator 290’ is among the
Accept and Close
largest machines of its kind in the
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17/09/2021 06:05 Liebherr Cranes Keep Big Wheels Turning | E & MJ

world. Since 1978, the 18 buckets

fitted to the excavator—which has a
tractive force of 100 mt—have been
digging through sand and gravel, and
in the process have moved close to 3
billion m3 of material.

The new wheel, 18 m in diameter and

weighing 140 mt, was initially
delivered in individual parts and
assembled at the installation site,
minus its buckets. At the completion
of this assembly stage, the three
Liebherr mobile cranes, comprising an
LTM 1500-8.1, an LTM 1400-7.1 and
an LTM 1350-6.1, maneuvered into
position for turning the wheel—which
was still lying in the position it had
been assembled—and then moving it
Follow onto a heavy-load crawler unit.
Special fastening equipment had to be
 constructed for tilting the wheel
during loading.

Next, all three cranes lifted in unison

and pivoted the wheel into a vertical
 position. The two bigger cranes then
held the wheel in place while the
smaller crane moved to the other side
and was re-attached. Once the load
was suspended horizontally, the
special crawler unit was positioned
beneath it, ready to take on the 140
mt of steel.

The loaded crawler had to travel 200

m to reach the excavator. There the
process of getting the wheel upright
was
This repeated.
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position for
information on installation.
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17/09/2021 06:05 Liebherr Cranes Keep Big Wheels Turning | E & MJ

Special fastening equipment had

to be built to allow the

wheel to be safely tilted for

loading onto the transporter,

which then carried it 200 m to the

excavator for installation.

“We also had to follow the special

safety instructions from the clients,
which stipulated that during the
tandem lift, the cranes could not be
Follow
subjected to more than 80% of their
 maximum capacity,” said Jürgen
Oprée, technical director at Breuer &
 Wasel.

 Breuer & Wasel operate a number of

cranes permanently on site in the

largest open-cast mines in the Rhine
coalfield, at Garzweiler and Inden as
well as Hambach. These units are
called “basic load” machines and
include two Liebherr telescopic
crawler cranes—an LTR 1100 and LTR
1060—that are mainly used for repair
and maintenance work on the giant
excavators.

The crane fleet at the mine also

includes a unique Liebherr model, of
This website uses cookies to improve site functionality and to
which only one was produced. The LTL
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1160 off-road machine, 4 m wide and
information on the use of cookies on this site, and how you can
robustly designed, has been in
decline them, is provided in our Privacy Policy. By using this site
continuous operation at the mine
or clicking on "Accept and Close," you consent to the use of
since 1997, and during that period has
cookies.

racked up 16,000 operating hours on

the crane chassis and 19,000 hours

Accept and Closeon
the superstructure. The four-axle
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17/09/2021 06:05 Liebherr Cranes Keep Big Wheels Turning | E & MJ

unit underwent a general overhaul in

the early part of the year at the
Liebherr Service Center at
Oberhausen, and was also partially
modernized.

It took two days for the crane experts

from Bergheim to turn, transport and
install the bucket wheel on the site.
The specialists from RWE Power AG,
which operates the 38 km2, 370-m-
deep mine, had taken two years to
plan and prepare for the huge
excavator to be overhauled, and the
refurbishment cost RWE around €11
million. It will still be some three
decades before the brown coal
reserves at the Hambach mine are
fully exhausted—and the excavator’s
Follow new wheel assembly is expected to
easily last that long.
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