Giant in Plochingen: first Liebherr LH 150 material handler with electric drive in an inland port

Since June 2018, scrap and metal trading company M. Kaatsch GmbH in Plochingen, Germany, has been working with a new Liebherr LH 150 C High Rise Industry Litronic material handler: the first LH 150 with electric drive to be used in an inland port.

Just in time for Kaatsch’s 70th anniversary, a delegation from Liebherr and Kopp/Nagel handed over a new material handler to the recycling company. The electrically-driven LH 150 C High Rise Industry will primarily be used for loading and unloading ships with scrap.

The Kaatsch Group is an international recycling company whose core activity is the recycling of reusable materials. At the Neckar port in Plochingen, scrap and metal trading company M. Kaatsch GmbH operates a scrapyard with an annual throughput volume of over 1.4 million tonnes. A general service provider for the disposal, processing and direct marketing of high-quality secondary raw materials, the company always attaches huge importance to the use of efficient and ultra-modern machines. This is why Kaatsch has been relying on tried-and-tested material handlers from Liebherr and professional care and support from competent sales and service partner Kopp Baumaschinen Herrenberg, a Nagel Group company, for decades.

The new material handler is equipped with a 400 kW electric motor with frequency converter. Together with the standard Liebherr ERC energy recovery system, the machine achieves a total system output of 661 kW. Fast and smooth work cycles are made possible thanks to the additional gas cylinder mounted on the boom. The winding system with roller deflecting guide on the undercarriage allows travel paths of up to 100 m from the infeed point. In the configuration specified by Kaatsch, the uppercarriage is installed on a high-rise crawler undercarriage. This guarantees an optimal view of the working area.

The LH 150 C High Rise Industry has a radius of up to 28 m with its 15 m long boom and 13.5 m long stick and can therefore cover a large working area. With a huge load bearing capacity of up to 13.6 tonnes at a 27 m radius, high volumes of material can be handled.