FIRST JOB FOR GTK1100

The first unit of Manitowoc's Grove GTK1100 telescopic crane has completed its first series of lifts. The GTK1100's first job was to install a 2 MW wind turbine in Ilshofen, Baden Würtemberg, southern Germany, for energy provider REpower Systems. It completed five lifts, the first three of which were 62, 53 and 45 tonne tower mast sections. Next was the heaviest element, the 70 tonne nacelle, followed by the three 8 tonne rotor blades, which were assembled on the ground before being lifted as a 42 tonne load.

Jochen Wiesbauer, managing director of Wiesbauer, the company that owns the crane, said that it lived up to expectations, “The performance of the GTK1100 on this first set of lifts was simply outstanding,” he said. “Because these lifts were the first in a field setting, we took extra caution and double-checked everything but, even with this, the cost and time savings compared to other lift solutions were exceptional.”