Ingoldstadt, March, 2014 – At first glance, this project didn’t look particularly challenging, but when taking into account all the jobsite restrictions, crane service provider Schmidbauer realized that it needed to execute a high precision masterpiece. Stacking containerized offices can be an everyday task, but when this is carried out indoors and with minimum space to maneuver, its another thing. For this job, Schmidbauer used a crane that is globally known to work in tight spaces, the Terex® AC 40 City crane.
“There weren’t any viable alternatives to begin with – no other crane had the design characteristics required to handle the job. Without the AC 40 City crane, we simply wouldn’t have been able to take on the project,” explains Christian Schlagbauer, the branch manager at the Schmidbauer Group’s Ingolstadt office. Schlagbauer also values the Terex crane due to its compact design and fast telescoping action under load.
In addition to the lack of space, the project also held another challenge: In order not to disturb the production work at the logistics warehouse, all lifts would have to be carried out during a single Saturday. This is where the Terex AC 40 City crane’s ease of mobilization and fast assembly proved to be invaluable, the team was able to drive the crane to the jobsite and set it up in just 30 minutes.
The mission: to stack 16 containers inside the building. To be able to perform the lifts despite the lack of space, the Schmidbauer team mounted a runner with the maximum possible offset directly on the crane’s main boom. In addition, they forewent a hoist rope and used swivel hooks instead. This made it possible for the AC 40 City crane to literally put the six-meter long, 2.5 tonne containers in chains at all four corners and then lift them using a radius of about ten meters. “With this configuration, I was able to bring the upper containers to the required height and then set them down on the lower ones without running into the ceiling structure or into any lighting fixtures or pipes,” reports crane operator Steffen Jaenecke, who was able to reliably complete the job within the required timeframe. “After just ten hours, all 16 containers were where they needed to be.” Added Steffen Jaenecke.
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