UK hire company and heavylift specialist Baldwins Industrial Services has lifted the heaviest refinery vessel ever erected in South America for contractor Contrina on the site of the new Sincor refinery complex at Jose in the Venezuelan state of Anzoategui. Weighing 950t, it was also the heaviest lift ever conducted by Baldwins. And with the vessel measuring 14.5m in diameter by 65m high, it was the highest capacity vacuum column in the world.
Baldwins deployed its 1,200t capacity Gottwald AK 912 lattice boom mobile crane and an 800t Liebherr LR 1800 crawler to lift the head of the column. The company’s US subsidiary Phillips Crane & Rigging provided a 600t Demag CC 2800 for tailing.
To ensure that the Gottwald and Liebherr cranes shared the weight equally, an electronic inclinometer monitored the level of the load. Its ouput was linked to a display in the LR 1800’s cab, enabling the operator to adjust hoist winch speed as required to keep the load level. Calculations showed that the load had to be kept within 1.5° of horizontal. In fact, the operator kept it within 0.5° throughout the operation.
This lift was one of 200 that Baldwins is carrying out at the site, including eight in excess of 500t. It has 12 other cranes on site with capacities up to 400t.
