Vibro Lifting Tool deployment

These piles will be used to build a jetty to serve as a temporary mooring area. The piles, 35 metres long and 2.9 metres in diameter, were picked up, lifted upright and stabbed and driven as deep as possible, only using the CV-320 VLT-U. All 13 were in position in record time of just 4 days. After all piles were installed they were driven to final penetration with a 500 kJ Impact Hammer.

Cape Holland says the harbour location gave the perfect opportunity for invited contractors and their clients to witness the upending and stabbing capabilities of the Vibro Lifting tool in the comfort of a warm vessel.

The company says it has successfully developed the application of vibrohammers for offshore purposes and claims to lead the way in using multiple linked vibrohammers in both Offshore Wind and the Oil & Gas industry. The latest development for reducing the cost of installation and noise emissions has resulted in the Vibro Lifting Tool (VLT), a Lloyd’s Register certified lifting appliance, which can be configured with an upending option.

This can significantly save on the installation time by reducing the number of handling operations. The VLT is able to pick up a stored pile (up to 1600t), upend it to a vertical position, lift it to the correct position and drive it down (correcting verticality while driving if necessary) in one single handling operation without the need of a gripper or seabed installation frame.

Due to the modular design the equipment can be deployed for the installation of a large range of piles, from small anchor piles to very large XXL Monopiles and anything in between.

By Jake Frith