Liebherr Delivers 300th Slewing Drive for Magni Telehandlers

Magni’s company history is short, but nonetheless astonishing: in just five years, the Italian manufacturer has become the premium provider of rotary telehandlers. These machines make load handling easy at heights of up to 46 meters, with impressive flexibility, precision and safety – not least thanks to the three-stage slewing drives from Liebherr Components. The Italian-German partnership is, therefore, a win-win situation for both companies.

“Our machines are sometimes competing with cranes weighing 40 to 50 tons – in contrast, however, they are much smaller, more versatile, nimbler and less expensive. Yet they perform all the required tasks and even combine the three functions of a crane, forklift and work platform,” says CEO and founder Riccardo Magni, briefly listing the advantages that explain the success of his rotary telehandlers. Within a short time, production figures at Magni Telescopic Handlers rose to more than 700 machines per year – with annual growth rates of 30 - 40 percent. Successful operation of these handling machines requires precise control over the load even at greater lifting heights. Magni rotary telehandlers operate at heights of up to 46 meters – which means the manufacturer holds the current world record for rotating models.

“Moving with absolute accuracy and precision is the top priority,” says Enrico Menozzi, head of sales Europe Drive Technology at Liebherr Components in Biberach (Germnay). The two companies first came into contact at the 2016 Intermat exhibition in Paris, where they both recognized the improvement potential in the rotary unit. As a result, a Liebherr drive unit has been used in Magni telehandlers since 2017. It consists of a type DAT 200 backlash-free gearbox, a high-pressure, high-speed hydraulic motor and special brakes. The entire slewing drive increases the machines’ precision and stability, and allows safe working at greater heights.

Three-stage slewing drives ensure smooth movement and high power density

Compared to single-stage solutions, the three-stage drives from Liebherr enable smoother movement of the boom. The design principle ensures uniform load balancing across the individual stages, resulting in a high power density. All Liebherr sun gears and planet gears are optimized to minimize circumferential backlash and have minimum play. The inner gears are made of tempered steel, which is also used for the planet carriers. The first jointly produced machines were successfully tested in 2017. Now Magni equips nearly all models with the slewing drives from Liebherr Components. The 300th drive was recently delivered to Italy.

“These gearboxes are the best components that we could find on the market. Liebherr has the best technology, and we are happy to be able to use it. Together, we are indeed a good combination that brings us great benefits,” says Magni. Menozzi agrees: “We have a very solid, open working relationship that benefits everyone, especially our customers. Magni was very open to suggestions from the beginning, so we found a new solution together.” Menozzi benefited from the in-house expertise of the Liebherr Components Division in the development and production of slewing drives for their own mobile applications. “We have longstanding experience in this area. We also supply drives for turntable ladders and fire engines. The largest of these can reach a height of 64 meters with people on them – high-precision positioning and smooth control being thereby a vital precondition. This know-how is now applied at Magni.”

Italian quality and German precision in one

The partnership between Magni and Liebherr creates valuable synergies. The two familyrun companies are united in their pursuit of continuous technical optimization and maximum quality. Customers could recently see the results of this great partnership at the Bauma trade fair, where Magni’s rotary telehandlers were a big attraction.

“We entered the market at the right time, which certainly helped our success. Flexible solutions are in high demand,” says Magni. “We are now the no. 2 provider worldwide.” And the company is clearly on course for continued growing success: “Many of our customers have now tested the new models with the Liebherr drives – and many want us to swap out their existing units. So at the moment we are planning a replacement kit with Liebherr.”