Zoomlion ZCC6000 crawler crane tackles Indonesian power plant lifts

Island site with little room to work

The power plant is being built ahead of the smelting operations it will supply, and installation of the captive coal-fired plant is the current focus of the scheme, which Zoomlion describes as a national strategic industrial project for Indonesia. The site conditions are demanding: the plant stands in a rainforest area on the island, the ground is cramped and muddy, and strong winds are frequent.

The main boiler house reaches a working height of more than 75 metres, while the large steel structures and heat-exchange equipment are both heavy and set at long radii. According to Zoomlion, conventional cranes could not cover the full working envelope in boom length and capacity, and overlapping construction in multiple sections left little space to position a crane — making precise long-radius lifts at height the bottleneck for the schedule.

Super-lift tower-boom configuration

After several rounds of load calculations and configuration comparisons, the lifting team selected the 500-tonne ZCC6000 rigged with a super-lift tower-boom combination. On site the crane works with a 100-metre composite boom, lifting boiler drums weighing over 60 tonnes, multi-tonne water-wall modules and extra-long high-temperature flue ducts.

The ZCC6000 carries a high-strength lattice boom, a stepwise adjustable super-lift counterweight system and a wide-span crawler undercarriage suited to the soft island ground, which also helps its stability in crosswinds. Zoomlion says the electronic control system and panoramic monitoring allow inching moves with millimetre-level accuracy, and that the crane has placed its loads without deviation despite the gusts and muddy footing.

Local back-up around the clock

Zoomlion’s technical team in Indonesia accompanied the job from the start, covering boom assembly, commissioning of the super-lift system and verification of the load charts before the first lift. During construction the manufacturer runs a 24/7 response arrangement with maintenance plans adapted to the hot, humid local climate, and has trained Chinese and Indonesian operators together to keep the crane working around the clock.

For Zoomlion, the job is a showcase for large Chinese-built crawler cranes on overseas metallurgical and power projects — and a follow-up to a growing list of big-tonnage machines the company has fielded in Southeast Asia.