10,000t crane from ALE

The heavy lift specialist said this is the world’s largest capacity land-based crane and will enable new levels of project efficiencies in schedule, safety and cost for the lifting of ultra-heavy modules, particularly in Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) and Floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) construction.

Demand for the lifting of larger and heavier modules is growing, and ALE’s 5,000t capacity AL.SK350 has performed a number of world record lifts in recent years.

“Now the SK10,000 will allow modules to be installed directly onto ship’s hulls, hugely advancing industry capabilities for both lift weights and impact on project efficiency,” said ALE.

The SK10,000 utilises the same design as the AL.SK350. This allows it to deliver unparalleled lifting power in a compact plot area without the need to install a full crane track, and to be fully rigged and operated off-plot to minimise site disruption. It offers an outreach of up to 200m (656ft) and ground bearing pressure below 25t/m2.

Ronald Hoefmans, ALE’s group technical director, said: “Our innovations in lifting super-heavy modules for projects such as FPSO and FLNG construction offer important advantages in terms of managing safety and minimising project schedule and costs.

“We not only solve our clients’ existing challenges, but also look to the future in enabling them to achieve industry firsts that later become the industry standard. The introduction of the SK10,000 means that individual lifts of up to 10,000t (11,200USt) are now possible, allowing customers to build larger modules more efficiently in fabrication yards and access a highly mobile and flexible solution to lift them.”