Hack Schwerlastservice’s E-Pack Powered Tadano AC 3.045-1 Working in “Cleanroom” Hall

“Without the E-Pack for the AC 3.045-1 City we wouldn’t have had a hope of getting this job done,” says Udo Hack, managing director of Neuwied-based heavy-transport firm Hack Schwerlastservice GmbH. His team recently shifted some heavy equipment at Hitachi Energy Germany AG’s plant in Bad Honnef. The job site was inside a cleanroom hall, so IC engine emissions were out of the question.

Luckily, the Tadano AC 3.045-1 City and the Tadano E-Pack were the perfect combo for the job. With its compact design, this crane is generally the ideal choice for these sorts of indoor assignments, and the E-Pack enables zero-emission operation – without sacrificing lifting capacity.

On arrival at the plant location, the Hack team transported the E-Pack directly into the hall using an electric lift truck. Moving the AC 3.045 City-1 into position in the cleanroom hall was somewhat more complicated, as the most direct route was too tight, so the crane had to make a detour through the adjoining hall. The gates to the hall were barely three-meters wide, and inside there was very little room to maneuver, but neither of these constraints was a problem for the Tadano City crane with its ultra-compact design.

On-site setup was very quick, with the entire process from start to finish, including connection of the E-Pack, taking just 30 minutes. “The customer originally wanted us to fit the AC 3.045-1 City with a runner, but in the end the compact overall height of the hook block meant we didn’t need to,” says Udo Hack. In other words, even in its standard configuration, the City crane was able to perform all lifts, including lifts just below ceiling height, safely and securely. However, because the crane had to be set up in a corner of the hall – the tight space constraints meant there were no other options – it had to telescope in and out for every lift. “As a result, some of the components we had to lift – pipes and concrete parts weighing up to 12t – exceeded the crane’s lifting capacity,” says Herbert Schellberg, a project manager at Hack. To remedy this, some of the components had to be dismantled prior to lifting so as to reduce their weight. The highly experienced Hack team took this in their stride, working closely with the plant engineers on site to undertake the dismantling work without any major problems and completing the entire assignment on time and to the customer’s complete satisfaction.

“With their Tadano crane and its absolutely ingenious E-Pack, the Hack team did a fantastic job. We were most impressed that they could operate a crane electrically and hence without emissions and still get such great performance out of it,” says Frank Urfey, the industrial engineering manager at Hitachi Energy Germany. Udo Hack is similarly delighted with his new machine: “Clearly, our decision to order the Tadano AC 3.045-1 City complete with E-Pack was absolutely the right one. Using the E-Pack is simply the best way to go for production hall jobs like this.” He is also pleased with the major cost advantages of using the E-Pack: the intelligent electric motor control system ensures that the crane draws only as much electrical energy as it actually requires in order to perform the tasks at hand. This results in lower operating costs in comparison to a diesel system, and in addition reduces the number of operating hours for the latter.

Featured Title photograph

Hack Schwerlastservice GmbH collecting the AC 3.045-1 City and E-Pack at Tadano, earlier this year. Photograph courtesy of Tadano

Hack Select Tadano AC 3.045 City with E-Pack for Zero-Emission Crane Operation