With its headquarters in the town of Maintal near Frankfurt, Eisele AG has been relying on Tadano for over 30 years. A recent project at the Fuchsstadt wind farm provided the company with the perfect opportunity to demonstrate exactly why it has been so impressed with the robust crane technology from Lauf an der Pegnitz for all this time.
Eisele was originally founded 33 years ago as a towing service. Fast-forward to today and the company now offers a full range of transport and crane services throughout Europe, with over 60 employees and a state-of-the-art fleet of vehicles including a wide variety of mobile cranes. Eisele has been part of the Hüffermann Group since April 2021.
Wind power in prefabricated buildings
The most recent assignment took the crane specialist and its crew to a location near Schweinfurt, where Ventur, the wind turbine tower manufacturer, had commissioned Eisele to lift huge precast concrete components at the Fuchsstadt wind farm. Ventur wind turbine towers are erected using the prefabricated climbing construction method, in which wall elements that are continuously tapered upwards and offset in height are assembled using the modular principle. This is particularly advantageous for the crane technology required, as smaller mobile cranes can usually be used compared to other construction methods.
This assignment involved the Eisele crew picking up the ground-level prefabricated tower components from the inloader, positioning them accurately, and later bringing them into the assembly position. The slabs weighed up to 25 tonnes, so this was certainly a job for the Tadano ATF 220G-5.
Powerful and precise
The challenge of this location was that the four-strong Eisele team had to really make the most of the available space on the construction site. The slabs have to be placed at a precise distance and angle ready for the next lift. This is a crucial detail, as the slabs have to be in line with the hook blocks during the assembly and erection process for two-hook operation.
For this to be possible, the components delivered upright on the inloader have to be turned and rotated in the air, making a second winch essential. The Tadano 220-tonner is the ideal companion to have on site for handling this task. “We love everything about the ATF 220G-5. It’s reliable, powerful and quick to set up, even with a second winch. In fact, we were ready for action within two hours,” enthuses Rocco Schimmel, technical consultant and project manager at Eisele.
Accurate lifting with two winches
The Eisele team decided to pick up the 25 tonne parts, which extended up to 30 metres high, with the main boom extended to 34.1 metres in width and a boom extension of 5.8 metres in height. Since the precise weights of the concrete parts were known, it was possible during the planning stage to ensure that the load on the main boom and boom extension would always remain within the load-bearing capacities. Equipped with a 71-tonne counterweight and the 8.3-metre wide outrigger base, the ATF 220G-5 lifted the concrete slabs over a radius of 16 metres and deposited them at the designated place. According to Rocco Schimmel: “The Tadano was definitely the right crane with the right equipment for this job. It allows our crane drivers to work with real sensitivity, which promotes safety and precision – even in two-winch operation.”
The 220-tonner then lifted the components into the assembly position. The Eisele team was able to carry out these tasks safely and with millimetre precision thanks to the intuitive operation that is typical of Tadano and the precise radio remote control of the crane. This project saw yet another building block in Germany’s energy revolution created in Fuchsstadt, thanks in no small part to powerful Tadano technology.
