The heavy mob

Despite economic turmoil in Europe and a slowdown in the global nuclear power industry, manufacturers and contractors providing super heavy lifting solutions say that demand in the sector remains robust. Investment in infrastructure in Asia, the Gulf, and North and South America is continuing to fuel demand for heavy lift solutions, with energy projects and the petrochemicals industry leading the charge. Manufacturers and lifting services providers tell Cranes Today that the increasing size of structural components and the drive to minimise lifts has pushed them to invest in new cranes and alternatives such hydraulic gantries, strand jacks and self erecting towers to ensure that super-sized infrastructure can be placed, moved and constructed. "Demand continues to grow for bigger machines that can lift more and reach higher. This is mostly because projects are also getting bigger. So we have to produce machines that can match engineering ambition," explains Manitowoc global product director Jerry Maloney.

Manitowoc's latest super heavy lifting crane is the Model 31000 lattice boom crawler with a 2,300t capacity and a 105m main boom length. It gives 2,000t of lift at a 15.2m radius and can extend as far as 209m with luffing jib. The company has two units, one which has been sold and the other which is being used in-house. "The unique feature of this crane is the variable position counterweight system," explains product manager for Europe and the Middle East Federico Lovera. "With this feature we are able to do the most challenging lifts. The VPC minimises the volume of the counterweight because it automatically adjusts how far it is extended from the rear of the crane depending on the size of the lift."

Suspended above the ground the counterweight automatically repositions to maintain balance as the lift progresses. Lovera says this also makes it suitable for offshore applications. In addition, the crane has been designed to sit on four smaller crawlers, rather than two big outsize ones, to minimise transportation costs. Like many of today's super-lifters, development of the 31,000 was initiated in response to the energy industry, which is leading the way when it comes to construction of increasingly large components. Infrastructure such as oil platforms, refineries, power stations and wind turbines are pushing the heavy lift sector to go further and heavier than ever.

Beyond energy projects, stadium construction, roads and bridges are also stretching technical capacity.

But overcoming these challenges is what many of today's crane manufacturers relish. Lampson International has a long history of developing super heavy lift crawler cranes and is about to release its latest iteration of the Transi-Lift, the LTL- 3000, to Japan's Hitachi Transport Systems later this year. "The LTL-3000 has an ultimate lifting capacity of 3,000USt (2678t) when configured with 220ft (67m) of main boom and 1,700USt (1518t) when configured with 400ft (122m) of main boom, developing a maximum load moment of 100,000tm," explains Lampson engineering project manager Randy Stemp. This increases capacity from the earlier Transi-lift 2600 by some 20%.

Stemp says that the new machine differs from the 2600 by having a wider cross section (by 4ft/1.2m) and thicker wall chords. "It uses our newly designed hydraulic winches capable of 105,000lbs of line pull versus 75,000lbs on the standard LTL-2600. The new hydraulic winch system also gives us more flexibility to add auxiliary winches for more hooks or attachments such as luffing jibs and improves the control with maximum line pull," says Stemp.

Manufacturing of the machine began in 2010. Originally, the LTL-3000 was to be used on Japan's nuclear programme. However, following the Fukushima power plant disaster triggered by the 2011 tsunami, the country's atomic energy programme remains in a state of paralysis and public opinion is divided as to the way forward. As a result, Hitachi asked Lampson to delay handover of the crane. "We can typically build a Transi-Lift within 18 months," explains communications director Kate Lampson. "But because of the recent devastation in Japan we were asked to delay the project, which is why it is due for release in 2013. It is in the final stages of completion right now. Hitachi will take delivery of the machine either by taking it to Japan or another job site around the world." Crane manufacturing giant Terex is also at the forefront of the super heavy lift market. The firm tells Cranes Today that demand for its CC8800-1 and the Twin kit that converts the crane from a 1,600t capacity crawler to a 3,200t beast, has been strong. Released in 2007, the Twin kit was created in collaboration with a number of customers that were seeking greater lifting capacities, including the UAE's Al Jaber Heavy Lift, which had been instrumental in the development of the new crane. The firm had first approached the market back in 1999 to make a 2,000t capacity crawler, seeking mobility over a stationary ring crane. "With the Twin you have the versatility to take on 1,600t jobs and you have to transport the minimum elements. It gives you flexibility versus a super large lifting device such as a ringer," says Agustin Dominguez, associate market manager for communications at Terex. "Every single one of our models is to be the most profitable and give the highest return of investment."

Since the Twin was introduced demand has been greatest in the Middle East, Australia, Singapore and Turkey. At the same time the firm's CC9800, which also has a 1,600t capacity, has been busy in the wind energy sector. The wider boom of the crawler gives it a greater load moment suitable for lifting large scale 6 and 7MW turbines with heavy nacelles.

Looking ahead Terex could be a manufacturer to watch as the firm tells Cranes Today that it will not rule out some 'interesting developments in this super heavy lift market' in the near future.

Also at the top of the crawler market is German crane powerhouse Liebherr with its LR 13000 that can lift an incredible 3,000t at a 12m radius. Unlike other crawlers its powerful slewing ring enables it to lift without derrick ballast. Its first LR 13000 is being used by Mammoet at the Whiting refinery and a second LR 13000 is at the Liebherr test yard. The firm tells Cranes Today that a third LR 13000 is scheduled and that it sees potential in the market for even greater lift capacities. "We see a market for greater lift capacities, but Liebherr will not develop a larger crane in this segment in the near future. The question is whether a crawler crane is needed or whether this market is covered by the existing ringer cranes," says head of sales promotion Wolfgang Beringer.

Ringer cranes are most certainly getting bigger as firms seek to overcome the limitations of static form by extending the lift radius of the machines. Mammoet's PTC 200 DS and PTC 140 DS are leading the charge. The latest generation of the PTC ringer crane family is capable of lifting 3,200t loads using four 800t winches. Each ring crane runs on wheeled bogies that allow it to slew 360° in 15mins, and the luffing jib (up to 106m) used with the main boom allows loads of up to 1,000t to be lifted at a radius of 100m. The PTC 140 has a load moment of 140,000tm; the load moment of the PTC 200 is 200,000tm. "The PTC 200 is four-to-six times as powerful as our previous capacity ring cranes," says global director of sales Michel Bunnik who explains that the company made an ambitious decision when developing the new ringers. "We took the decision to have three identical machines and it turned out to be the right decision," says Bunnik. "They help our customers run their construction and maintenance projects more cost-efficiently and reduce the downtime of their plants."

Bunnik says that the cranes have all been working constantly despite the evaporation of demand in the nuclear power sector where the cranes were originally expected to be used. "The first two became operational in 2011, the second in early 2012, and all three machines have been working since. We have seen that by putting this crane in the market we have created demand. These kind of lifting technologies give clients the ability to review existing construction methodology," he says.

The ability to lift larger segments from cranes positioned off-site gives clients more options to modularise construction and prefabricate larger elements. The UK's ALE Heavy Lift has certainly demonstrated this with the 4300t capacity SK190, which operates with a centralised ballast system acting as a pivot for the lifting section moving around a track specifically designed to meet the requirements of the site or lift. In Houston Texas, the machine lifted a full 1,400t derrick assembly for a coal power station, which consisted of three drill towers and a cutting deck. It was lifted 100m before it was replaced, allowing the coker drums beneath it to also be changed. ALE says this is the first time a full derrick has been removed in a single lift from a crane off site, enabling the coker to remain operational and the coke pit wall to remain in place.

The firm also points to the SGC-Dow Group's petrochemical project in Map Ta Phut, Thailand as another example of the benefits the supersize lifter can bring. "The initial concept was for a high capacity crawler, working in three positions," explains project director James Roberts. "When we introduced the SK option to the client it meant lifting from one location, saving time on de-rigging and ground prep etc. It enabled the (86.3m tall, 725t) columns to be lifted over the newly erected pipe rack structures and installed two months ahead of the original schedule."

In July 2012, ALE upped its capacity further by introducing the 5,000t SK350 to its arsenal. The machine is currently bound for use at the OSX shipbuilding yard in Brazil and boasts an unprecedented l.oad moment of 340,000tm. "The recent upgrade to the SK350 ensures that the boundaries are pushed even further," says Roberts. The crane will have a maximum lifting capacity of 5,000t using a strand jack system and is also fitted with a 2,000t winch system. It has a load moment of 354,000tm (claimed to be around 77 percent higher than its nearest rival) and a 141.2m main boom. It can also be fitted with a fixed 120m jib. "The principle behind the ALE SK lifting machines is not what it can lift, but more importantly to increase capacity so that cranes can be positioned off-plot, lifting large structures and bringing them deep into the construction area." Roberts says that achieving this without shutting down the site or performing multiple lifts is a requirement across all of the major heavy lift sectors, from petrochemicals and nuclear power to offshore yards. "Customers are looking to us to produce solutions that reduce time, risk and disruption in what is an increasingly competitive market. It is no longer about getting off the shelf equipment at the best price, it is about what is the overall best solution."

US lifting specialist Bigge is another firm that has developed a world-leading super heavy lift crane.

The firm has two 4,000t Bigge 125D AFRD machines working on nuclear projects in the US. The machines can lift 3600t at a 73m radius. Bigge is now developing more heavy lifters. "We are getting ready to start production on the next generation machines as well as we are in the design phase for others in the family," says Peter Ashton, VP for major projects at Bigge.

Looking to the future it seems that the 'build big and the market will come' philosophy that has worked so well for the industry will continue to be a good bet: crane builder are still investing in super heavy lifters. "We are looking into boosting capacity of the existing machines and the potential for bigger ring cranes is definitely something that we are looking into from a technical point of view," says Mammoet's Bunnik. "Five or six years ago we thought that we had reached the limit and now we have come up with something that is at least four times the capacity of what it used to be, and there is a market for it. By putting the bigger capacity in the market we seem to be able to create demand."