Qube gets Liebherr MHC

Australian port solutions provider Qube Ports has purchased an LHM 550 mobile harbour crane from manufacturer of ship cranes, mobile harbour cranes, and offshore cranes, Liebherr-MCCtec Rostock. Qube Ports will use the new crane for its operations at in Whyalla, Australia, where it is working with international energy and natural resources business Simec.

The order follows a previous one from Qube Ports, for an LHM 420 mobile harbour crane, which at the time of writing in early July was on its way to Qube’s facility in Bell Bay, Tasmania.

According to Liebherr-MCCtec Rostock, the LHM 550 has a lifting capacity of 144 tonnes and a maximum radius of 54 metres. The new crane comes with a four-rope grab from Smag and Liebherr-MCCtec Rostock’s SmartGrip bulk handling option, which allows materials with a variety of densities to be handled with the same grab. According to Liebherr-MCCtec Rostock, the SmartGrip technology optimises the filling rate of the grab in a self-learning manner. The company said it takes five lifting cycles for the system to learn how to optimise use of the grab, thus preventing overloads, increasing the material handling rate and alleviating crane operator stress, particularly for less experienced crane operators. “This saves Qube a lot of hassle with grab changes but also saves them money otherwise spent buying multiple grabs,” said Gordon Clark, general manager at Liebherr Australia.