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INTERNATIONAL AND SPECIALIZED TRANSPORT
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OCTOBER 2013
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Changing tides
Manufacturers and offshore
lifting equipment providers
are expanding their ranges
of bigger lifting equipment
to keep up with demands
for a new generation of
offshore projects.
LAURA HATTON reports
T
rends in the offshore industry are
changing and manufacturers and
service providers are experiencing a
demand for bigger equipment for offshore
use. Part of this is due to the increasing
size in offshore platforms and tension-leg
platforms (TLP) and deeper depths in
subsea exploration.
“There is a clear trend that TLP’s are
getting bigger,” a spokesperson from
heavy lift and transport company ALE
explains, “We are also seeing the size of the
transformer platforms increasing. As
a result the equipment used for the load
outs and installations demands an
increase in capacity.”
To accommodate the demand in the
offshore industry ALE has added a number
of high capacity strand jacks to its fleet.
“This year alone we have purchased five
1,250 tonne Strand Jacks, 58 900 tonne
Strand Jacks and a further 18 500 tonne
Strand Jacks,” an ALE spokesperson says.
“The Jacks have been used in different
offshore locations including the North Sea
and will be used on future projects in the
coming months.”
An example of an offshore project from
ALE where the Mega Jack system was
deployed was for the jack up the 44,000
tonne topside of the Arkutun Dagi. For the
project the topside was raised to a height of
22 metres. “With such versatility the Mega
Jack will be used on future offshore projects
such as mechanical floatovers and other
applications,” a company spokesperson
adds. (See
IC
June issue on page 25 for
more information on this project.)
Crane manufacturer Liebherr has
also accommodated customer demands
for increased lifting capacities for the
offshore sector. A result of this has
been the production of the CAL 45000
heavy offshore crane. The crane was
manufactured at Liebherr-Werk Nenzing
and it has a lifting capacity of 1,200 tonnes
at a working radius of 27.5 metres. The
crane is fitted with a 108 m boom and can
achieve a lifting height of more than 120 m
above deck.
“The crane is designed as a ‘crane
around the leg’ (CAL). This means it is able
to rotate 360 degrees around one of the four
jack-up legs of the vessel,” a spokesperson
from Liebherr says. “It requires
a small obstruction area of only 12 metres
and has a special twin-boom design, which
means that two booms run parallel to each
other at a distance of 14 metres. This allows
the boom to be parked over one of the
vessel’s front legs.”
The slewing ring of the heavy lift crane
has an outer diameter of 13 m. It has a
4,000 kW electro-hydraulic drive and the
Liebherr Litronic system. A CAL 45000
is currently installed on the
Vidar
, an
installation vessel belonging to Hochtief
Solutions, and is due to be used for the
installation of offshore wind power stations.
Also new from Liebherr is the
RL-K 7500 subsea crane. A spokesperson
from Liebherr explains more, “In search
of new natural resources our clients are
exploring and developing offshore fields
MOTION
COMPENSATED CRANES
Barge Master, a manufacturer of wave
compensation platforms, has been
commissioned to develop a new model
for a crane on a Walk-to-Work ship built
by shipbuilder Niestern Sander,
the Netherlands.
The new wave compensation model, the
Barge Master T40, is being developed for
crane rental company Wagenborg. The T40
can be fitted with an offshore knuckle boom
or a telescopic boom crane with a capacity
of 15 tonnes, the manufacturer said. It is
designed to help cranes service offshore
wind turbines or unmanned oil rigs. The T40
has been developed with Bosch Rexroth and
will be ready in the first quarter of 2015.
OFFSHORE LIFTING
A Liebherr CAL 64000
heavy lift offshore crane
