News has come in about a major incident in Turkey where an 800t Chinese-manufactured Zoomlion crawler crane and a Liebherr LTM1800 were involved in an accident while lifting a large cold box. It appears that the crawler crane experienced some form of structural failure.
Both cranes belong to Sarilar, a Turkish company, and are under its operation. Currently, Zoomlion is sending a team to investigate the cause of the accident. Instead of speculating, we will provide you with the information we have received.
Once the cold box was raised upright, the load stayed suspended in the air for approximately 30 minutes. Subsequently, during the lifting process, the load visibly deviated from its vertical alignment and veered to the left. Notably, the superlift tray was noticeably elevated off the ground, and there was no apparent slewing or tracking movement by the crane throughout the operation. By paying close attention, one can discern several banging noises, which may originate from either the boom or the slew ring. As the crane begins to tilt, the superstructure completely detaches from the carbody.
The cranes configuation was (Crawler crane)
210t superstucture ballast
60t carbody ballast
81m main boom
18m fixed fly
200t superlift ballast
The load weight was:
271.6t (including rigging and hook)
Max was 337.00t
Crane was working at 82%
We are pleased to announce that there have been no injuries reported. As evident from the photo and videos, those involved have been fortunate, unlike the unfortunate Liebherr LTM1800, which was an innocent victim in the incident.
We will follow up with some of our contacts on site and hope to issue a statement following a full investigation but due to its location and involving a chinese made crane we will not be holding out to much hope on this, this will be a very good learning curve if the finding are made public.