As far as Maik Harting, Head of Crane Planning at the Schmidbauer headquarters in Munich, is concerned, the current Tadano AC 4.080-1 perfectly bridges the space between three-axle and five-axle cranes: “Its innovative engineering makes this 80-tonne unit an enormously powerful machine with extraordinary performance – it’s more compact than other four-axle cranes in its class in most dimensions, and its lifting capacity with a fully extended boom is unrivalled in the 100-tonne class up to a radius of 30 meters.”
He mentions the superlative basic counterweight system as another plus factor behind the Tadano crane, as it makes the four-axle unit an extremely versatile taxi crane. On the road, the AC 4.080-1 can transport up to 9.3 tonnes of counterweight while remaining under a 12-tonne axle load limit, and all while also carrying a 6.5-meter swing-away jib. In fact, this even includes a three-sheave hook block, as well as plenty of reserves for slinging gear and timber supports. Another aspect that Maik Harting found particularly compelling was the Flex Base outrigger system, which makes it possible to extend the outriggers to any point within their range.
This enables the crane to extend them all the way to surrounding obstacles and get the maximum possible lifting capacity under all conditions. In addition, it allows the crane to take care of lifts that would normally be the exclusive purview of larger cranes. Zoltán Rósza, a future core member of the crane operator team, was thoroughly impressed with the Tadano Surround View system during his training on the new crane in Zweibrücken. With Surround View, he already has an overview of the possible outrigger lengths and the counterweight slewing radius when positioning the crane on construction sites. This was especially helpful because sites are increasingly crowded. Zoltán Rósza is equally impressed with the machine’s total width: just 2.55 m for a crane with a main boom length of 60 m.
Schmidbauer Field Team member Thomas Muswieck also adds the crucial advantages behind the AC 4.080-1 when it comes to safety. For example, the capacity radar provides crane operators with all relevant information on the crane’s lifting capacity in the current working range while taking the boom position into account. “This makes working with the crane extremely safe and is part of why we’ll be using it primarily for work in prefab building construction around our headquarters in Munich, as a successor to our exceptionally reliable Tadano ATF 80-4 that has served us well for many years,” Muswieck highlights.
The new crane was handed over by Tadano Sales Manager Hans Asam, who knows that the AC 4.080-1 is in great company at Schmidbauer. After all, the Schmidbauer Group’s fleet already includes around 80 additional all-terrain and lattice boom crawler cranes from the Tadano locations in Zweibrücken and Lauf. This simply reinforces the long-lasting and good partnership. In addition, the Bavarian crane experts see the merger between both companies as a thoroughly positive development: “The manufacturers complement each other perfectly, so we’re really excited about the innovations that Tadano has in the pipeline for us in the future,” Maik Harting says.
