09.11.2001

Demag launches 1,250 tonne CC 8800

Hundreds of heavy lift specialists from around the world travelled to Zweibrücken in Germany to see Demag’s new 1250 tonne capacity CC 8800 crawler crane. The crane was rigged for the first time ever yesterday on the Bierbach test ground and the crane was officially handed over to its new onwer, Carl Marino of Marino cranes at midday today (November 9th).

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The 1250 tonne capacity Demag CC 8800

Five of the cranes have been ordered. The first will be delivered to Marino in the US early next year. The company has placed a second order for the crane and orders have also been received by GH Heavy Lift of Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, Sterling Crane in Canada and Al Jaber of UAE.

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Carl Marino

The CC 8800 has a maximum boom length of 216 metres and can be operated in a working range of from 9 metres to 154 metres. Examples from its capacity chart given by Demag include the ability to upright columns weighing 400 tonnes and measuring over 100 metres in length.

An important feature of the crane is the fact that no transport components are wider than 3.5 metres or higher than 4 metres when loaded on a trailer. Weights of individual components are kept within 40 tonnes. Other features include identical crawlers, (ie there is no “left” or “right” crawler) and a new design that squeezes dirt and mud out of the tracks during travel.

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Eberhard Kuhn

“We are proud to present our new invention, the CC 8800” Eberhard Kuehn, CEO of Demag Cranes told the assembled guests. His pride in the powerful crane was plain to see and reflected in comments by his chief designer, Alexander Knecht, who revealed that “it took us years of work to get the crane down to these transport dimensions”.

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Alexandar Knecht

Guests at the "Heavy Lift Summit" came from around the world and included Frans Van Seumeren who was celebrating the recent lifting of the "Kursk" submarine. He told Vertikal.net that this was the "crowning moment of my career". Commenting on the CC 8800, Van Seumeren called it a good crane but said that Europe was unlikely to have any suitable projects for such a crane in the near future.

Guests at the summit were treated to presentations from Professor Poelke of the Potsdam University, who spoke about the planning involved in preparing for a big lift, and Allan Jackson, formerly of GWS, who described in graphic detail some of the very practical problems associated with international heavy lifting projects.

The day culminated with an evening of entertainment provided by Demag in a dining hall that started life as the local power station! Centrepiece of the event was an impressive, 4 metre high, model of the CC 8800 which had been created by Demag's factory apprentices.

See also Demag's web site.