Liebherr wins ESTA Award

Liebherr won the category Safety for the innovative Single Line Guiding System (SLGS)

On April 11th the winners of the ESTA Awards of Excellence in different categories were announced in Munich. Liebherr won the category Safety for the innovative Single Line Guiding System (SLGS). The SLGS makes the installation process of wind turbine blades safer, more economical and in many cases also greener.

To stabilise long rotor blades in the wind, helpers have had to be used on the ground with vehicles and, in some cases, even rope winches, to control the blades using long ropes. This requires a great deal of space on the ground as the force needed can only be generated if the ropes are spanned at an adequately low angle. For erecting wind turbines in forest areas, this means that more trees have to be felled than the component sizes of the crane and turbine components themselves would actually require. None of this is required if the new Liebherr SLGS is used as the blades are stabilised in the wind by the crane’s main boom.

The single-line guiding system is a system which is attached to the main boom on the side facing the load. A rope is secured at the top of the boom head and tensioned using a rope winch below in the pivot section. A cable pulley with two connections to the outsides of the rotor blade yoke runs along the boom rope during the hoisting process. With its own power supply in the yoke, the two connections to the SGLS are tensioned so that the blade is stabilised in the wind and can also be moved into the correct angle for installation on the hub. Since the horizontal application of force on the blade by the main boom is perfectly aligned, the SLGS significantly improves the load control during the blade installation.

The ESTA award is the most important European award in the cranes and transport industry and is awarded in various categories including safety, innovation, combined technologies and load capacity.