On December 30, 2014, the world’s largest-tonnage all-terrain crane XCMG XCA5000 succeeded in hoisting a 2MW wind turbine in Yunnan province, China. XCA5000 became the first 2,000-ton all-terrain crane applied in construction around the world and a milestone in the development of wheeled crane.
Setting out from Xuzhou, XCA5000 arrived at the wind power field after a five-day journey crossing seven provinces. The operator of the crane still clearly remembered how he drove the crane on that 10km rough mountain road and risked over 20 nearly right-angled turns and 30 slopes or more steeper than 30% all the way to the field attacked by an abrupt heavy snowfall; all of these are severe challenges to any large mobile crane and asking for extremely high chassis braking performance, travel reliability and climbing safety.
The hoisting site was on the top of a mountain over 3,000m above sea level and covering only 600㎡. challenged by strong wind, XCA5000 stably fitted the 22m-high and 68-ton tower bottom on its base, and precisely hoisted the 2nd and 3rd sections.
Hoisting of the huge 8.5 (L) x 4 (W) x 4 (H) nacelle was the most crucial part in this task. When the wind roared to 16m/s, crane operation became extremely difficult. However, XCA5000 precisely positioned the 91-ton nacelle at the top of 81m-high tower.
“I am very proud of this, to successfully complete this task with the world’s largest crane! I’m so excited!” said Mr. Yuan, the crane operator.
XCA5000 can hoist 3-3.6MW wind turbines up to 110m under demanding working conditions in large chemical plant engineering and major infrastructure engineering. Over the years, XCMG has endeavored to do numerous studies and tests for the hoisting conditions of wind power plant. XCMG’s goal is to study the working condition for installation of world-leading 3.0MW wind turbine, and 20 verification of working condition has been done with XCA5000 at present.
