Lifting company Action Lev was assigned to install 24 new tanks for beer fermentation, providing an additional 400m3 per tank of storage capacity for a total of 9,600m3 for craft brewer Goudale in the north of France. For this mission, the company chose two Demag cranes – AC 160-5 and AC 100-4 – as they offered the most efficient and cost effective solution.

“This plan required unloading the tanks from the trailers and placing them on a raised concrete slab,” explained Bruno Declercq, owner of Action Lev, who was also operating the larger of the two cranes. “Thanks to the compact size and manoeuvrability of the AC 160-5, I was able to set up the crane on the concrete slab in order to reduce the working radius. Otherwise, we would have had to use a crane with a capacity of 700t to lift them from the outdoor parking area.”

Space is at a premium in the case of many craft brewers, meaning that the location of the storage tanks at the back of the building does not leave much room for cranes. This operation was challenging due to the fact that there was a 6m-wide passageway to position two mobile cranes and a convoy that required a space of six by 30 metres. To tackle the challenge, Action Lev chose to deploy a Demag AC 100-4 four-axle crane that was to lift the lower section of the tanks.

The crew then set up the AC 160-5 crane on the raised concrete slab to handle the new tanks, which allowed the AC 160-5 to be rigged close to the load’s final position. Ths left the access passageway free for the six metre convoy and the set up of the AC 100-4.

To place the tanks, the AC 100-4 and AC 160-5 cranes required maximum counterweight of 26.1t and 46t respectively. The dual-crane solution employed by Action Lev allowed the crew to cleanly and efficiently place six tanks per day.