Giant crane collapses

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/05/04/giant-crane-collapses.html

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Video link for the BBS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYu0f57XAz0

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Who built the crane out of the bendy steel? We needed the rigid steel!

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We need the most erect turgid steel :eyes:

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I love the ringing phone in the background.

Edit: It looks like the crane fell of its own accord, not like the test weight made it buckle. Or I suppose once something like that starts to go south, it’s all over regardless.

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An engineer somewhere is permanently losing their career right now

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the crane crumpled while lifting a 2,000 ton barge during a test in a German harbor.

That’s something that never seems like it would be a good idea.

They were lucky nobody got seriously hurt or killed - notice how close the hook was to operator booth.

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Physics can make anything possible if you physics hard enough :grin:

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That type of crane is rated for 5,000 t (for loads within a 30 m radius).

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Linked article makes it much more clear:

The hook of the crane was broken during the lifting, said a police spokesman. During a test, the heavy-duty crane mounted on the “Orion” ship was supposed to lift a 5,500-ton pontoon that lay next to the “Orion” in the water. When the hook broke, the crane’s almost vertical boom jerked backwards and hit the ship and the quay edge. “The crane was under extreme tension. The jerky demolition caused the crane to tip over backwards,” the spokesman continued.

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Yeah, Liebherr crane demos usually go better than that…

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Pickin’ up heavy shit is difficult.

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The ringing phone combined with the utter silence of the person recording the clip almost writes its own story. I’m guessing all hell breaks loose a second after the clip ends.

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This bendy steel is just bananas!

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instead of the asshole in management who said, “Our 3rd quarter profits are down! Make it 20% cheaper!”

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Lift with your legs, not with your backs.

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The NDR article says it was a 5500 tonne (presumably metric) barge being lifted as a test for a crane with a 5000 tonne rated capacity at 30m distance.

So a test at 10% over rated capacity. Pretty reasonable. All things considered, better to discover in port than at sea.

It’s the third crane collapse in a few months at Rostock for Liebherr. I think the “environment damage” comes from the previous accident having spilled 10,000l of hydraulic fluid and diesel into the harbour.

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Look at the bendy steel bananas.
Just look at it!

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