Liebherr Maritime Cranes: New Manipulator for Offshore Cranes

 The Liebherr Manipulator 100 provides two configurations and will be used on a pipe laying vessel.
 It has been designed, produced and tested at our production site in Rostock at the Baltic Sea in less than a year.

Rostock (Germany), November 2017 – The Liebherr offshore crane division has produced and delivered a new manipulator tool with a safety working load of 100 tonnes. Using this special equipment will extend the task our offshore cranes can complete in service.

Providing reliable machines and safe working conditions is quintessential for an equipment manufacturer. To underline this approach, Liebherr designed a manipulator for its ram luffing knuckle boom crane series.

The Manipulator 100 is able to be used with either hook or crossbar function. The crossbar mode perfectly matches to any operation – especially to those under bad weather conditions or to emergency operations. It can be used for swing-free liftings of bigger components such as flotation devices of several dozen tonnes. These devices prevent the loss of equipment like pipes and cables underwater.

Next to the crossbar mode the manipulator can be used for more efficient material handling onboard. Load handling is restricted because conventional main and auxiliary hooks can’t rotate. This makes lifting of loads within limited space very difficult. The Manipulator 100 is able to fill this gap due to its 360° rotatable structure. Additionally it is equipped with a two meter long hydraulic telescoping arm. In this way the manipulator ensures an optimised working range and is an ideal tool for pipe handling operations for example.

The Manipulator 100 can be used for Liebherr ram luffing knuckle boom cranes – one of the latest products in the companies’ offshore portfolio. Both the RL-K 4200 and the RL-K 7500 can be outfitted with the Manipulator 100. The ram luffing knuckle boom crane series is used for both deep sea operations and pipe handling. The RL-K 4200 has a lifting capacity of up to 100 tonnes and a boom configuration of 50 metres. With its low working radius and its boom extension to almost 180° the RL-K 4200 is an ideal solution for pipe handling operations. Next to this the RL-K 7500 is also able to fulfil the requirements of subsea operations. Due to its deep sea winch the crane can handle loads in water depths of about 3600 metres below the sea level. Both cranes are ideal partners for the manipulator.