Download - Palfinger

12 // TRUCK-MOUNTED CRANES INTERNATIONAL
Unconventional
Operation Site
Maintenance Crane in Entrance Building
of St. Pauli Elbe Tunnel
Anyone who thinks a truck-mounted crane can only
be mounted on a truck has got it wrong! Stationary
installations are not out of the ordinary. However,
bringing a crane into a building is definitely no everyday
occurrence and at the same time poses a substantial
challenge. A challenge that the PALFINGER service
and sales partner Meyer Fahrzeug-Technik u. Service
GmbH tackled with a great deal of commitment.
The task was to install a 16 metre-tonne crane underneath the dome on
the top level of the entrance building of the St. Pauli Elbe tunnel. The
crane is permanently installed there in the centre directly adjacent to
the maintenance shaft. Equipped with cable winch, radio remote control
and workman basket, the PK 16502 Performance is used during maintenance
work inside the building and can reach up to 17 m downwards
into the maintenance shaft itself.
The only way of getting the crane in, however, was through a round
opening in the domed roof with a diameter of approx. 120 cm. It was
therefore decided to lower the crane into the building in two sections.
First of all came the relatively compact crane pedestal. This was followed
by the considerably larger and bulkier combination of main column,
knuckle boom, extension pieces and the cable winch. “We had tried everything
out beforehand at the depot such as how and where the load
attachments for the crane sections would have to go,” recalls owner and
managing director Jörg Meyer.
The hydraulic unit with electric drive, control pump and oil tank is installed
one floor down on the machinery level where the cable drums
and drive motors for the vehicle and passenger lifts of the Elbe tunnel
are located. This is where the standby generating set supplied by battery
power is also located so that the team in the workman basket can be
brought safely back out of the shaft again in the event of a power failure
during operation.
Meyer Fahrzeug-Technik u. Service GmbH was established in 1998, has
built up a workforce of 48 in the meantime and serves customers in the
city of Hamburg. Many of the skilled employees come from the crane or
vehicle construction industries. The company’s range of services include
the servicing, repair, maintenance and general care of all types of vehicles.
Installation of the PK 16502 Performance in the entrance building to
the St. Pauli Elbe tunnel set a special benchmark in the performance of
the Meyer team. ❚