At 35m long the vessel is one of the largest Damen Shoalbusters so far; this gives a spacious working area but Wijngaarden needed a capable crane to move cargo and equipment around the deck. What the operator decided on was an HS Marine long reach knuckleboom with three telescopic extensions; this means it could lift 12 tons at 15m in order to reach the full width of the vessel while still keeping a tight, neat footprint.<\/p>\n
However, Wijngaarden had a few specific challenges to overcome explains Giovanni Patini of HS Marine. \u201cThis vessel\u2019s contracts aren\u2019t just for a couple of weeks, they can last three years so they expect to have a crane working perfectly with no problem for the whole contract \u2013 they don\u2019t want to have to stop operations because of some crane issue.\u201d<\/p>\n
Therefore it\u2019s been designed to be straightforward, robust and very easy to maintain, even down to the small things like marked tags showing parts numbers on each of the lines and cables: \u201cWe keep everything as clear and simple as possible,\u201d he said and pointed out that all the looser items, like the hoses, are sheathed against abrasion and tucked neatly out of the way.<\/p>\n
However, HS Marine also understand the pressures on the crew: Mr Patini explained: \u201cWe understand very well that even if you write in the manual that certain points need to be greased once a month, if it\u2019s not easy to do people simply won\u2019t do it. So we have a manual, centralised grease system with all the lubrication entry points at the same place. It does mean that it\u2019s got a better chance of getting done.\u201d<\/p>\n
Further, crane is fully tested before delivery, and not just within the stated parameters. \u201cThe crane is tested at 100% of its stated capacity, but we also know that when you\u2019re on the sea there\u2019s always the potential for some dynamic factor from the waves pushing the load over this maximum,\u201d he said. \u201cSo we step up and test both crane and winch at 125%.\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019s also a \u2018traffic light\u2019 warning system for the operators: \u201cThe lights on the remote control and the screen will remain green until you reach 90% of the crane\u2019s maximum load, but over this the light becomes yellow to tell you it\u2019s close to the limit \u2013 although at that point the system still lets you carry on. But go over the 100% and the light becomes red – and at that point you can only perform a move which reduces the lifting moment of the crane. So, you can\u2019t hoist or swivel \u2013 but you can telescope in or lower the load.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cThe system will also record how long the overload was, and it will also tell you how far you were over capacity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Protection against corrosion is one of the most important elements of a long maintenance schedule said Mr Patini. \u201cIf you check more standard technical specifications from the yard, it will say something like \u2018300 micron thickness, three layers\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, on our cranes we carry out the painting in house just because we want to have control over it. We provide the same 300 micron thickness but made up of seven layers which results in much, much better adhesion – it\u2019s the only way you can be sure of gaining the maximum effect from the coating.\u201d<\/p>\n
By Stevie Knight<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There\u2019s a certain realism about the design of the HS Marine knuckleboom crane that\u2019s been installed on the latest Wijngaarden Marine Services vessel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":3161,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"sponsor":[],"class_list":["post-3160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-accessories-equipment"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maritimejournal.com\/get-set-for-workboat-2050\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maritimejournal.com\/get-set-for-workboat-2050\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maritimejournal.com\/get-set-for-workboat-2050\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maritimejournal.com\/get-set-for-workboat-2050\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maritimejournal.com\/get-set-for-workboat-2050\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.maritimejournal.com\/get-set-for-workboat-2050\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3160\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maritimejournal.com\/get-set-for-workboat-2050\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maritimejournal.com\/get-set-for-workboat-2050\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maritimejournal.com\/get-set-for-workboat-2050\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maritimejournal.com\/get-set-for-workboat-2050\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3160"},{"taxonomy":"sponsor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maritimejournal.com\/get-set-for-workboat-2050\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sponsor?post=3160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}