Founded in 1949 by Hans Liebherr, the family-run group began with the world’s first mobile tower crane (TK 10) and has since evolved into a €14.6 billion engineering powerhouse.
🚀 Milestones in Deep Foundation Engineering
– 1976 – Foundation of Liebherr-Werk Nenzing (Austria), now the hub for foundation rigs and crawler cranes.
🏔 Fun fact: After running out of space in Ehingen, Liebherr started building maritime cranes in the Alps! Hans Liebherr picked Nenzing for its rail and road links — and because he could reach it in his Mercedes-Benz 450 SEL.
– 1979/1980 – Launch of the HS 870 HD, the world’s first hydraulically driven duty-cycle crawler crane with electronic control.
🧩 Fun fact: Many doubted the HS 870 project — Nenzing factory made ship cranes, not construction machines. Yet the team worked weekends to finish it for Bauma 1980. Forty years later, the same prototype was found in a gravel pit near Bonn and restored in 700 hours. It still runs today — proudly named “Manfred #1” after engineer Manfred Brandl, one of its original builders.
– Late 1990s – The first LRB series (combined piling and drilling rigs) was manufactured
– 2007 – Debut of the famous LB 28 drilling rig at Bauma
– 2019 – The LB 16 Unplugged was launched as the world’s first battery-powered drilling rig
– 2024 – Launch of the LBX 600, featuring an Ultra Low Head (5.8 m) configuration.
– 2025 (Bauma) – Debut of the HS 8100.2 Dual Power, the first all-electric duty-cycle crane. HS 8130.1 was presented as part of a new package for demanding slurry wall work, alongside the LSC 8-20 cutter
🔩 Innovation and Equipment Highlights
– LB 45.1 — optional lattice boom extends drilling depth to 37 m within a compact frame.
– LRB 19 (LRB Series — multi-purpose rigs for piling, drilling, and soil mixing)— unique hydraulic quick-connect system lets the operator swap tools without leaving the cabin; can be transported in one piece with vibrator attached.
– LRH Series — operates hammers and vibrators directly from on-board hydraulics, eliminating external power packs.
– LBX 600 (Compact Slurry-Wall Carrier) — Its Ultra Low Head design (5.8 m) lets it work under bridges and tunnels where others can’t. With a hydraulic grab, it reaches 80 m depth.
– HS Series — duty-cycle crawler cranes that embody the company’s engineering DNA. HS 8100.2 Dual Power — first all-electric crawler crane; energy-recovery winches cut power use by 30 %.
– Deepest Cutter Work: Liebherr’s slurry wall package, featuring the HS 8130.1 and the LSC 8-20 cutter, is designed for trenches up to 150 meters deep and 2 meters thick.
📊 Numbers That Define Scale
– €14.6 billion Group revenue (2024)
– €399 million from the Deep Foundation segment
– €666 million R&D investment in 2024
– 54,700 employees worldwide, including 1,600 at Nenzing, where Liebherr produces its deep foundation equipment.
💡Have you ever worked with Liebherr foundation equipment? What impressed you most?
