Wolffkran Arabia – set up in Abu Dhabi earlier this year as a joint venture between leading German crane manufacturer Wolffkran and the UAE-based Kanoo Machinery – plans to expand and open more offices in the UAE to enable it to serve clients promptly.

It also aims to add 15 new cranes to its fleet during the course of this year.
The joint venture’s main objective is to sell and hire out high quality cranes in the UAE. Wolffkran, the leading provider of extremely high cranes around the globe, will be represented in the UAE through its general manager Dietrich Sell and will be providing the region’s youngest fleet of cranes for hire on building sites.
“The contract is an important milestone for us in the Gulf market,” says Dr Peter Schiefer, managing partner of Wolffkran. “We’re proud to have teamed up with the Kanoo Group, a partner with a broad and solid base in the Middle East and strong prospects for the future. We will be offering our 150 years of experience in crane building at the service of our clients in UAE and across the region. Top-class engineering from German workshops and an excellent regional sales infrastructure amount to a perfect combination,” he points out.
Kanoo Machinery, a leading subsidiary of the Kanoo Group that began operations in the mid 1960s, is one of the country’s leading conglomerates and has considerable experience in joint ventures with companies of international standing.
Wolffkran recently launched a comprehensive package of technical innovations, which were exhibited at bauma, an international trade fair for construction machinery held in Munich in April this year. These products demonstrate the company’s ongoing focus on its strengths: economic efficiency, the highest level of quality for all products and services and innovation leadership, especially with luffing jib crane technology.
Around 150 years of experience in crane building and the great Wolff pioneering spirit helps us to develop products that have later become industry standards. The heart of our business remains the research and development department,” adds Schiefer.
Last year, the emphasis was primarily on pushing forward the internationalisation of Wolffkran, while nearly doubling production.
Among the company’s innovations are topless saddle jib cranes for all loads up to 224 tonnes. The company has introduced the large topless Wolff 6031clear and 6023clear for all European core markets, as well as the new growth markets in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Asia, and as a supplement to its own rental fleet. Both cranes belong to the new L class of the Wolff product portfolio. These new developments have been optimised for transport and assembly. Thanks to their slim jib components, the two topless saddle jib cranes can be transported using a lot less space: the counter jib fits in one piece in a truck, the entire swivel can be transported by road with only four standard tractor-trailer rigs. Also worthy of note is that complicated interlocking due to wide load is no longer necessary, says a spokesman for the company
“However, our goal in terms of logistics is not only the reduction of the trucks required for transport, but rather our specially-developed system for easy and structured loading and unloading of the components. As a result, our customers gain time and safety benefits when loading and assembling,” says Thomas Herse, chief structural engineer and project manager for the development of the new Wolff products. “We are also proud of the minimal back overhang of only 15.2 m for this crane size, because it enables technically sophisticated construction under tight spatial conditions.”
Another novelty launched on the world market was the new large luffing jib crane Wolff 355 B. “Wolff 355 B is the best example for our continual research and development in the area of luffing jib cranes achieving very economical technical solutions for our customers. As a result, we are constantly increasing our expertise of luffing jib cranes and confirm our leadership position within this sector of the industry,” says Schiefer.
Wolff 355 B is a top slewing luffing jib crane with a load moment of 5,100 kNm, which can be installed to either operate on a stationary or flexible basis.
“A unique feature of a luffing jib crane of this size is its connection for Wolffkran’s 2 m system tower TV 20.4. Due to its small external measures, it is suited to narrow building sites and fits into most elevator shafts and thus can easily be utilised for internal climbing. It can also be used for external climbing. Its minimum counter jib radius of 7.2 m is also ideally usable for construction work in restricted spaces.The use of concrete counterweights on the counter jib is particularly cost-effective for our customers,” Herse comments. “The maximum jib radius of the Wolffkran 355 B is 60 m. In the range between 30 and 60 m, the jib radius can, however, be increased at intervals of 5 m.
“In the Wolff 355 B we have, for the first time, utilised our newly developed and patented method of construction with suspended framework of the tower top and counter jib. The tower top is constructed as a simple frame, into which the luffing drive is incorporated. This enables the use of the pulley block with the pre-reeved luffing rope patented by Wolff, which enables a rapid installation of the jib. The tower top, the counter jib, which is also structured as a simple frame, and the jib are bolted to the connection frame. The connection frame is generally transported and installed in combination with the lower part of the tower top.
“This method of construction enables the rapid installation of our new Wolff 355 B with a small mobile crane. We are particularly proud of the low assembly weights of the individual components, which are under 10 tonnes,” he adds.
Among other products showcased at bauma, were the Wolff 4517city with the accompanying City tower TFS12 and the cross frames KRV 7-32.
“The complete system consisting of swivel, tower and cross frame from the Wolff City class convinces primarily through easy and economical transport,” he says. “The entire swivel, including the 45-m-long jib and the tower components for a hook height of 35.5 m, can be transported with only two standard tractor-trailer rigs. The quick assembly due to the extremely low weight of the individual components is also a highlight of the new ‘city’ crane. Overhead assembly of the individual jib pieces is possible at close quarters on the construction site. The Wolff 4517city, with its transport weights of less than three tonnes, is also especially suited for helicopter assembly. The cross frame provides particular advantages for relatively short building times of a maximum of four to five months and makes complicated and expensive setting of the crane in concrete unnecessary.
As a standard, the new Wolff cranes are also equipped with the distributing ring system. The multilingual graphic terminal continually supplies useful operating information and diagnosis reports. The simple, menu-controlled setting of the overload protection device and all limit switches provides additional comfort and safety.
With its 150 years of tradition, Wolffkran is one of the leading manufacturers and lessors of high quality tower cranes in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the UK, Canada, Hong Kong and the Middle East. With its company headquarters in Zug (near Zurich) and the production locations in Heilbronn and Lübben, the company, with its approximately 300 employees, generated a turnover of around €48 million ($64 million) last year.