Never change a winning team. That’s certainly the motto of Austrian crane service provider, Kran Mitterhauser GmbH. The company has been counting on Tadano cranes for almost 30 years now and has worked with every model released by the manufacturer in this time. So when the time came for the regular customer to add to its fleet once again, it was the turn of the Tadano ATF-100-4.1* all-rounder.
Kran Mitterhauser GmbH employs a team of 70 staff at its site in Zell an der Pram, Austria, and offers crane services of all kinds: from prefabricated construction and lifting industrial units through to salvaging work and tree pruning. With such a diverse range of services on offer, the company has to be able to rely on machines that are capable of handling these flexible requirements. Its fleet comprises a total of 27 mobile cranes, two-thirds of which come from Tadano, and there are several reasons for this, as Managing Director Helmut Mitterhauser explains: “We have just had so many positive experiences in the many years that we have been counting on Tadano: the robust and economical machines are real workhorses, the service is always good, and our crane drivers enjoy how intuitive the cranes are to operate.”
In its quest to add another flexible all-rounder to its ranks, Mitterhauser decided to purchase a new ATF-100-4.1. Another factor in favour of choosing this model came down to experience: “We have already worked with the previous 90-tonne model in our fleet and our drivers never had any problems with it, so we know the 100-tonner will be no different,” Helmut Mitterhauser explains confidently.
Unparalleled flexibility
Although Kran Mitterhauser intends to use the 100-tonne crane for all conceivable applications in principle, the crane service provider sees particularly great potential in the field of prefabricated element assembly: “The crane can be combined with various boom extensions with a runner and second winch. These accessories will allow us to use the machine as an alternative to a tower crane.
The second winch, for example, can be used to turn and tilt concrete components, which is extremely practical for short jobs in prefabricated construction,” explains the managing director of the crane company. Another practical element is that the boom extensions are self-fitting, which means an auxiliary crane is not required.
Even on the way to the construction site, the 100-tonne crane can carry quite a bit itself. Within the 12-tonne axle load, for example, a 9.2-tonne counterweight can still be carried along in addition to the 17.7-metre boom extension.
This is enough to lift loads of 7.3 tonnes over a radius of 14 metres with the boom fully extended to 60 metres. With the maximum possible outreach of 34 metres for this configuration, the crane still manages half a tonne of weight from A to B.
It’s heavy stuff, but additional transport for the further counterweight is generally not required. “With performance data like this along with the versatile range of accessories, the 100-tonner covers virtually all of our applications as a taxi crane. And given that it can even be used in cramped conditions, this crane really does offer unparalleled flexibility,” enthuses Helmut Mitterhauser.
No space? No problem!
Even on more challenging sites, the ATF-100-4.1 makes no compromises in terms of its performance thanks to its asymmetrical outriggers. The crane’s outrigger beams can be extended to different distances and, at the same time, the intelligent AML crane control ensures that the maximum possible lifting capacity is available in every outrigger configuration. This leaves the ATF-100-4.1 equipped for all eventualities and sure to live up to the old sports adage for Tadano’s regular customer Kran Mitterhauser: Never change a winning team.
(With the unification Tadano introduced a new naming formula. The machine in this article is now called AC 4.110-1)
