Mega-crane readied for Round 3 wind farms

Austrian crane specialist Liebherr has developed the heavy lift crane particularly for Beluga Hochtief Offshore joint venture, which specializes in the transportation, installation and maintenance of offshore wind power plants.

Due to the crane’s lifting capacity of up to 1,500 tons and in its extraordinary length of some 130m, the joint venture participants are happy to call it ‘groundbreaking.

A market study had identified growing demand for high performance hardware in the offshore wind energy sector and initiated the development of the crane. Due to the huge size and the innovative method of construction.

‘The crane-around-the-leg construction for such a crane is going to be a world premiere, said Jürgen Neier, project manager at Liebherr. ‘Just the pivot bearing weighs more than 100 tons. With an external diameter of 13m, it is the biggest pivot bearing ever installed in a crane with this construction method’.

Considering the huge dimensions of the crane, Liebherr had to adjust the facilities of their production plant in Rostock, Germany especially for the construction process. New machines had to be provided as well as a new gateway and the enlargement of the crossing way within the production halls.

With a weight of about 1,500 tons and a beam length of 105m, the heavy lift crane is too big to be transported in one piece from Rostock to Gdynia in Poland, where it will be mounted on the heavy lift jack-up vessel in the Crist shipyard.

The huge shipyard crane in Gdynia provides a maximum lifting capacity of ‘only’ 1,000 tons will not be strong enough to lift the newly constructed crane onto the vessel as a pre-mounted single piece. So the colossus will be delivered in several components each with a maximal weight of 600 tons.

Beluga Hochtief Offshore requires a height of the hook over deck of about 120m. A further special feature of the CAL 64000 – 1500 LITRONIC, as the crane is officially called, is its twin boom construction. The 105m long beam segments are aligned parallel to each other with a 14m gap in between. Three equalizer bars cater for the necessary stability of the skeleton framing. This intelligent construction enables the parking of the beams parallel to the deck over the front leg of the vessel.

The space-saving and efficient positioning of the crane on board provides plenty of free space on deck which can be used for the loading of further wind energy plant components.

The first heavy lift jack-up vessel, MV Innovation, is a new development for the booming niche market. It combines a lifting capacity of up to 1,500 tons, the ability to the transport and install turbines and rotors of 5MW capacity, and the capability o do so in water depths of up to 50m.

‘The huge offshore wind energy projects initiated by both the British and the German governments and starting as from 2012 point up the growing demand for powerful working equipment, said Rainer Twisterling, one of the managing directors of Beluga Hochtief Offshore. ‘All in all, the crane and the heavy lift jack-up vessel will load, transport and install up to 80 wind energy plants per year, with a height of up to 120m.’