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The height of utility-scale, land-based wind turbines in the United States has increased nearly 60% in the past two decades, reaching an average of 90 metres. Wind turbines are expected to keep growing in size in the coming years, as building the turbines to higher elevations enable the wind towers to harness stronger winds.
To keep abreast of these developments, Manitowoc has introduced the new Wide Boom Plus boom inserts will enable the 350-tonne capacity MLC300 to erect these increasingly tall wind towers.
The new inserts will give crane operators extra reach by lengthening their booms to 131 m when used in combination with Manitowoc’s VPC-MAX and extended upper boom points.
Brennan Seelinger, Manitowoc’s product manager for crawler cranes, said wind turbine work above 90 metres currently requires a crane of 400-tonne capacity or larger. By boosting the MLC300’s boom length, the smaller crane can now undertake this work, with the benefit of lower costs for operation and transport.
“Our new boom inserts will open up more jobs for our crawler crane owners,” said Seelinger. “They will increase utilisation of our MLC300 crane with added flexibility. Where before crane operators would need to bring in a larger crane to reach heights above 295 feet; now they’re able to employ their MLC300 with boom inserts and take advantage of increased reach from its smaller footprint.”
The new Wide Boom Plus inserts kit for the Manitowoc MLC300 crawler crane is now available for purchase everywhere Manitowoc cranes are sold.
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