Mini Spider Crane Lifts Clockwork Knife for New Airport Restaurant

A Unic mini spider crane hired from GGR Group installed a clockwork knife at the front of award-winning chef Heston Blumenthal’s new restaurant in London Heathrow airport’s Terminal 2 building.  

A 0.995 tonne capacity Unic URW-095 mini spider crane was hired to add some of the finishing touches to The Perfectionists’ Café in The Queen’s Terminal, including artist Rob Higgs’ “Clockwork Knife” sculpture.  

The 3.2m-long mechanical sculpture took 10 weeks to design and build and features a moving metal blade. With the restaurant situated on an upper level in the departure lounge, the 600mm-wide compact crane had to be tracked through the terminal and transported up to a restricted access lifting location in a goods lift. An LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) powered mini crane model was used so no toxic fumes were emitted. 

First the crane performed a test lift to check that the slings were positioned correctly to keep the knife balanced before it lifted it to a 6.5m height so it could be fixed into position by the installation team on an access platform.