Potain delivers largest topless crane to BACHL Group

Potain has launched the MDT 1609 topless tower crane and delivered the first unit to BACHL Group in Germany. It is the largest topless crane in the Potain range.

The first crane has entered service at the headquarters of Karl Bachl Betonwerke in Bavaria. It was erected to a height of 40.2m on the site of a previous tower crane. The unit has a maximum lifting capacity of 40 tonnes and can lift 14.1 tonnes at the end of an 80m jib.

BACHL Group, a construction and building materials business with 2,600 employees across sites in Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Romania and Croatia, is using the crane in its storage yard. It handles loads including precast concrete segments weighing up to 40 tonnes and operates the crane over two daily shifts.

The 80m reach is central to the installation at Karl Bachl Betonwerke, allowing the operator to cover more of the yard from a single position. This supports loading and pre-loading for shipments across the site.

Site installation

The crane was fitted to an existing circular mast rather than a new mast system. Moser Baumaschinen, a Potain dealer, worked with Manitowoc Lift Solutions to develop an adapter so the upperworks of the MDT 1609 could connect to the mast already in place.

According to technical details released for the project, the adapter has a diameter of 3.2m, stands 1.55m tall and weighs 7.5 tonnes. This allowed the new crane to be integrated into the facility without replacing the full mast structure.

The installation shows how crane manufacturers and dealers are adapting new equipment to existing infrastructure when customers want to limit disruption and reuse installed assets. Here, the engineering work focused on matching the new model to the older mast at the Bavaria site.

Technology features

The MDT 1609 includes an integrated energy storage system that captures kinetic energy when loads are lowered and reuses it, reducing overall energy consumption, according to Potain.

The crane also uses Potain's Crane Control System, or CCS, which can allow crane operations to be set within 15 minutes after installation, according to the manufacturer. The unit at Karl Bachl Betonwerke is also equipped with Potain CONNECT, an onboard telematics system for remote diagnosis and maintenance.

Remote monitoring tools have become more common in heavy lifting equipment as operators look for earlier fault detection and better planned servicing. In yard environments, where cranes often work repeated cycles over long shifts, maintenance planning can directly affect equipment availability.

First in line

According to Manitowoc, the MDT 1609 marks the start of a new Maxi-MDT line for Potain. The model sits at the top end of the manufacturer's topless crane range and is aimed at jobs involving large loads and wide operating radii.

The delivery also underlines the continuing importance of Germany's industrial and construction materials sector for heavy lifting equipment suppliers. Karl Bachl Betonwerke, part of the wider BACHL Group, produces building materials, while the group's construction division works across industrial and commercial construction and road building.

Bernard Ecabert, Lift Solutions Manager for Tower Cranes at Manitowoc, outlined the engineering work behind the project. "Each project for Lift Solutions is unique because we are tailoring engineered solutions specifically to the project. For the MDT 1609, we required all our engineering know-how and close cooperation with Moser Baumaschinen, with whom we've worked for over 30 years as a Potain dealer. The result was a huge success. The Potain MDT 1609 is the first in an exciting new line of Maxi-MDT cranes - high-performance topless cranes with the latest technology to tackle some of the most challenging applications," said Ecabert.