Wolff luffer in power station demolition

A luffing jib Wolff tower crane will be on demolition duty at a power station in Germany until the end of 2008.

The Wolff 160 B is helping to demolish a cooling tower at the decommissioned Boxberg nuclear power station near Dresden. Its mast is almost 100 m tall and, when luffed, the jib protruded above the top of the 113 m cooling tower.

Two years ago four cooling towers at the Boxberg power plant were blasted. To avoid the risk of damage to underground utility cables and pipelines the fifth and last cooling tower was retained. Using an hydraulic jaw type demolition tool on the tower crane the first 60 m of the last cooling tower will be dismantled by the end of the year. The power pack for the demolition tool is mounted on the crane's counter jib. The rest of the tower will be demolished in 2009 using a wrecking ball.

An advantage of this type of crane is that the jib can be luffed to reduce the radius. Doing this allows higher loads at short radii and slewing in a confined space. Also important for operation in small areas is a short counter jib for minimal swing radius.

Wolff 160 B

Height under hook 134 metres

Capacity 6 tonnes

Maximum radius 35 metres

Tower height 97.9 metres

Crane base KRE 4120