Zoomlion LW3600-240NB wind power tower crane makes jobsite debut

Zoomlion is pitching the LW3600-240NB squarely at the hybrid-tower era. The company says the machine, described as the world’s largest wind power tower crane, has now completed its first job at a 50 MW wind farm in Huguan County near Changzhi in China’s Shanxi Province, hoisting turbine components to more than 100 metres above ridges in the Taihang Mountains.

Eight turbines on steep ridges

The project comprises eight 6.25 MW wind turbines on hybrid towers, spread along mountain ridges at an average altitude of over 1,400 metres. Slopes approach 20 degrees at some positions, leaving conventional large mobile and crawler cranes struggling to find level working areas, while components must be set precisely at a hub height of 160 metres.

That terrain is exactly what the luffing-jib machine was designed for. With a maximum capacity of 240 tonnes and a maximum lifting height of 241 metres, the LW3600-240NB covers hybrid-tower turbines above 10 MW without any additional equipment for ultra-high towers. An extended, large-angle goose-neck jib lets the crane carry a nacelle of more than 100 tonnes smoothly through strong ridge-top winds, while fixed-radius lifting and precision hoisting functions cut repeated alignment time at height.

Small footprint, 32-hour relocation

Just as important in the mountains is what the crane does not need. The erected machine stands on a site of only 35 by 55 metres – 1,925 square metres in total – which Zoomlion says gives planners far more freedom in positioning and reduces disturbance to the landscape, easing land-acquisition negotiations.

The mast sections use a clamping-shoe pallet structure that speeds up assembly and dismantling, and a movable pulley arrangement means no assist crane has to remain on site during the process. Under ideal conditions the complete relocation cycle – dismantling, transport between turbine positions and re-erection – can be finished in as little as 32 hours, a figure that matters on a wind farm where the crane must repeat the exercise eight times.

The Huguan debut gives Zoomlion a working reference for the class of dedicated wind-power tower cranes that Chinese manufacturers have been developing as turbines outgrow even the largest conventional crawler cranes on complex mountain terrain.