Krupp Fördertechnik GmbH`s Materials Handling business unit, based in St. Ingbert-Rohrbach, has received an order for two cable cranes to be used in the construction of the Leibis-Lichte drinking water dam in the German state of Thuringia. In addition, the business unit will shortly start supplying machine parts and electronic equipment for three cable cranes which will be used to build the Deriner dam in Turkey. This order was awarded in June 2000 by ERG Insaat Ticaret ve Sanayi A. S.

The Leibis-Lichte dam is being built to the south of Weimar, not far from the town of Rudolstadt. It will be 100 meters high, 370 meters wide at its crown and 80 meters thick at the base. The 600,000 cubic meters of concrete needed to build the dam will be moved into position by the two cable cranes, which will also be used to transport excavated soil and machines.

Each crane will have a capacity of 20 metric tons and a lifting height of 140 meters. The cables for the two crane trolleys will have a span of 615 meters. The cranes can be moved radially: on one side of the river valley the cables will be mounted on a 14-meter high concrete structure, while on the other bank each will be fixed to a mobile car. The two cars will run on a spherically curved track with a maximum 40 percent incline to slew the cables across the full working area, allowing precision service to all points.

In addition to design, manufacture and supply, Krupp Fördertechnik is also in charge of assembling and installing the cable cranes and putting them into operation. Acceptance inspection of the first crane is scheduled to take place eleven-and-a-half months after order placement.

The Deriner dam is being built in northeastern Turkey, to the south of the city of Artvin. It will dam the waters of the River Coruh for power generation. The dam is being built in a deep valley with steep sides rising to a height of more than 1,000 meters above sea level. Some three-and-a-half million cubic meters of concrete will be used to build the Deriner dam with the help of three cable cranes from Krupp Fördertechnik.

Each of the cranes can lift maximum loads of 28 metric tons by up to 280 me-ters. The three parallel cables each have a span of 740 meters above the working area. The drives for lifting and trolley travel feature a DC thyristor controller for infinitely variable speeds. They are equipped with a target control system and automated swing control. In addition, the cranes will be fitted with a so-called master-slave control system allowing two trolleys to be used in tandem. In this way particularly heavy loads up to 50 tons can be transported. Nine-and-a-half months are available for project handling through to commissioning of the three cable cranes. As with the cranes for Leibis-Lichte, the electronic equipment is being supplied by Siemens.

Including these two most recent orders, Krupp Fördertechnik`s Materials Handling business unit has now supplied 177 cable cranes for dam projects world-wide.