The largest tower crane ever built by Liebherr was put into operation some weeks ago at Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. Ltd. in South Korea. The 4000 HC 70 has a load moment of 4,000 metre-tonnes and will be used to move ship sections weighing up to 70 tonnes.

Without ballast, the weight of this gigantic crane, designed and built by Liebherr-Werk Biberach GmbH, is a mighty 700 tonnes. Fully ballasted, the 4000 HC 70 weighs in at almost 965 tonnes, the same as around 650 mid-class passenger cars.

The crane’s maximum load capacity is 70 tonnes. It is capable of lifting 41 tonnes at a working radius of 80.0 m. All crane drives are frequency-controlled and fully stepless. The 3-speed FC hoist gear has an outstanding output of 230 kW.

The crane is erected on a wheeled portal with a clearance height of 9.90 m and a support base width of 12 x 12 m. A total of 28 drives each with an output of 5.5 KW ensure rapid displacement without jerks on the 720-metre craneway at a maximum speed of 40 m/min.

The 4000 HC 70 presented not only a technical but also a logistical challenge. The individual sections were shipped to South Korea in 33 containers and 19 package units. Twelve weeks were scheduled for erection of the crane at Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. Ltd. in Korea. Owing to excellent preparatory measures by the Biberach plant and the work of up to four Liebherr customer service engineers and ten Korean engineers, the 4000 HC 70 was fully erected and ready for operation after only seven weeks.

Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. Ltd. now has two large cranes from Liebherr. A tower crane with a load moment of 3,150 metre-tonnes was delivered to the shipyard in 2005.