Terex Cranes has released preliminary specifications of a new capacity-increasing ‘boom booster’ upgrade kit for its CC 8800-1 crawler crane. The kit will undergo testing until the end of March next year with first shipments planned for summer 2014.
The ‘boom booster’ provides a significant increase in lift capacity for long system lengths, is easy and cost effective to transport in standard 40ft open top containers and is retrofitable to any CC 8800-1.
The new kit comprises five 10 metre long by 10 metres wide bolt-together boom sections, plus two bolt-together tapered both of which are 11 metres long providing a new extra wide base boom of 72 metres on top of which standard boom sections are pinned to provide long heavy duty boom configurations. Walkways and fall protection systems are also built into the new boom sections.
The new boom Booster clearly targets the success of Liebherr’s P-Boom concept and is planned for use in the erection of large wind turbines, flare stacks and large vessels in the petrochemical sector.
When using the boom booster the counterweight carrier maximum load jumps to 800 tonnes from the 640 tonnes for the standard boom, giving the CC 8800-1 in booster SFVL configuration with 86 metres of main boom plus a 12 metre jib (90 metre hook height) a capacity of 953 tonnes at 20 metres, 922 tonnes at 22 metres and 892 tonnes at 24 metres radius – ideal for lifting long heavy items.
The boom booster appears most effective when using long booms at shorter radii giving a significant lift capacity boost to the standard CC8800-1 and lifting more than a CC 9800 in certain boom configurations and shorter radii.