Carbon fibre world first from Liebherr

Liebherr is introducing anti roll bars made from carbon fibre material in duty cycle crawler cranes and standard crawlers.

The manufacturer said the commercial advantages of using the material will be particularly strong in machines weighing up to 300 tonnes.

This is the first time CFK (carbonfaserverstärkte kunststoffe, in English, carbon fibre reinforced polymers) has been used for anti roll bars, Liebherr claimed. Compared with conventional steel, CFK versions are up to three times lighter and have a higher static load capacity and greater long term rupture strength, added the company.

"The great benefit for the user is that the lower weight of the anti roll bars enables greater jib lengths. In turn, this means that the user can operate on construction sites with greater working heights and greater working radii. In addition, the crane has up to 50 % more load capacity than was previously possible, particularly at large working radii," said a company spokesman.

CFK anti roll bars also have better long term stability properties than high-rigidity fine-grained steel and are 100 % wear free, Liebherr continued. Also, there is no longer any need to change anti roll bars to suit the particular job and application, which liebherr said is a laborious and costly exercise.

"From a commercial point of view, the innovative carbon fibre technology also makes the equipment much easier to handle, quicker to assemble and, ultimately, considerably lower on resource consumption,"added the spokesman.

"When tooling up a heavy crane or duty cycle crawler crane, it is not necessary to have an additional crane to handle the anti roll bars and/or securing cables. In practice, such commercial advantages can be crucial when using crawler cranes weighing up to 300 tonnes,"