Sunderland City Council has invested in a Liebherr materials handler to help boost cargo handling capacities and business opportunities at the Port of Sunderland, the UK’s second largest municipally owned port. The new Liebherr A 944 C HD wheeled industrial rehandler can access all quay surface types, operating free-on-wheels or static with four point hydraulic outriggers and is capable of loading and discharging cargo ships up to 5,000dwt.
Councillor Paul Watson, leader of Sunderland City Council and chairman of the port board, said: “This machine can go, quite literally, along any of the quaysides and working areas in the Port of Sunderland. It’s going to bring some significant benefits. Buying this materials handler represents a good investment in the port’s handling capacity.”
Liebherr materials handler with a veritable armoury of attachments, including clamshells and five-tine grabs, timber tongs, lifting hook and electromagnet suspension system. Automatic central lubrication is featured for upper carriage and attachments. A 20kW hydraulic generator drive is Councillor Mel Speding, the City Council’s cabinet secretary and a member of the port board, added “Commodity cargoes are a major part of the port’s work and with the addition of this crane there’s an opportunity to look supplied for the magnet attachment.
at more of this market.” The Port of Sunderland already has rail-mounted cranes at Corporation Quay and other mobile crane capacity includes a Liebherr Harbour Mobile 150.
The Port of Sunderland’s new Liebherr materials handler comes with an extremely high specification to ensure maximum versatility and optimum operating efficiency and safety. This machine is one of a comprehensive range of specialist industrial rehandlers, specifically designed and built for materials handling applications at the Liebherr Group’s line-dedicated factory in Kirchdorf, southern Germany.
The A 944 C HD Litronic is a 58 tonnes operating weight machine, powered by a turbocharged and intercooled Liebherr diesel engine that complies with Stage IIIA/Tier 3 emission limits and develops 190kW at 1,800rpm. This powerful materials handler features a heavy-duty undercarriage, with 70 tonnes class excavator axles and large solid rubber tyres. The broad support base with four-point pads makes it extremely stable in operation and, as a result, the A 944 C HD Litronic has outstanding load capacities of up to 4 tonnes at a working radius of 18 metres and a maximum lift height of 20 metres. This model has also been supplied with Liebherr’s own Kinematics option 3C, which modifies the operating range curve and provides additional reach depth below ground level — essential for unloading ships’ cargo holds. The 11.5 metres industrial gooseneck boom is combined with an 8.8 metres industrial angled stick, which is equipped with a quick-change mechanism and electrical system for the range of attachments and magnet operation. The Port of Sunderland has taken the new
The air-conditioned, vibration and sound-dampened cab is typically comfortable and functional, with Liebherr’s own highly developed Litronic engine and hydraulics management system ensuring the operator has real-time performance data at all times; this system also includes load diagrams according to ISO10567. An overload warning system has been installed, as has the Prolec Litwatch 5 system which includes the ‘load on hook’ option. Armoured glass, front and FOPS roof guards have been fitted, as have additional front and rear headlights, plus twin halogen lights on both the boom and stick. A rear-view CCTV camera and in-cab colour screen provides maximum rear space monitoring at all times. The cab can be hydraulically elevated, giving the operator a raised 7.14 metres line of sight of the work area, which is a particularly important operating safety benefit when unloading ships. The ergonomically designed seat in the cab can be moved to a wide range of positions and adjusted to match the driver’s weight; the steering wheel is also fully adjustable. Twin joystick controls for slew and attachment movements are integrated into the seat armrests.
Commenting on the new machine, Matthew Hunt — director of the Port of Sunderland — said,“the port board considered the business case, approved the purchase and now we’ve taken delivery of a very precise and efficient piece of very mobile plant machinery. It’s going to provide important new additional capacity to more efficiently meet our trading obligations over the ten-year period”.
Keith Middleton, the port’s cargo operations manager, added, “It’s a very fast and agile piece of machinery, and it is offering us more flexibility.”