At TOC Europe in Rotterdam, Liebherr Maritime presented an in-house developed man-lift for its harbour mobile cranes

　　Two years ago a Liebherr LPS 420 crane in Sweden was retrofitted by the operator with an Alimak lift with rack-and-pinion drive mounted to the tower.Liebherr has taken this development a step further by developing an electrically-powered man-lift, which will be offered on new mobile harbour cranes and LPS variants.

　　The LiUP saves the drivers energy and time compared to climbing up several stairs to the operating tower, so could prove popular on its larger cranes. In addition, it could prove popular with service engineers. The lift is capable of transporting up to two people and has a payload of 200 kg.

　　The LiUP elevator has already been deployed successfully for a number of years with Liebherr tower cranes and was awarded the golden innovation prize at the Intermat 2015 in the “Equipment & Components” category.

　　The device features an innovative drive technology powered by an electric motor with lithium-ion battery. This has the great advantage that no disturbing cables are necessary. When the lift is lowered, the drive concept is also able to recover up to 40% of energy.

　　The LiUP has several functions to protect the safety of crane operators and service technicians. The stopping positions are monitored by three limit switches, while a clamp brake reacts when the elevator starts moving too fast. Inductive sensors permanently check whether a guide rail is installed.