At the Liebherr factory site in Ehingen, Germany, a lattice boom crane is towering 150 m above the ground in a form that has never been seen before. At the lower part of the crane the lattice sections are assembled parallel to each other; at the top, the double boom has been joined together to form a single boom. This “parallel boom” is the newly developed P-boom – “power boom“. This innovation can certainly be described as trailblazing, since lifting capacity increases of more than 50% can be achieved with relatively little effort.

The power boom not only improves stability in the direction of the load, but also to the side, which results in enormous increases in lifting capacity with long boom systems. The serial luffing fly jib can be attached, with its lifting capacity also being increased considerably by the increase in the torsional moment of the power boom. In general, only standard intermediate sections are used with the power boom.

The power boom was first designed for the 3,000-tonne LR 13000 crawler crane. Because of the high potential for increased in lifting capacity, Liebherr also developed it for the LR 11350, which in its standard version provides a lifting capacity of 1,350 tonnes. The new power boom is currently being assembled and tested on the latter crane model.