Synchronised lifting system gives SCS a boost

Dutch firm SCS were awarded the contract to deliver a number of high-pressure vessels, weighing 250t each, to a Korean nitric acid production plant owned by Huchems Fine Chemical Corporation.

Using the synchronized lifting system, which features an array of sensors which providing feedback on the load, the vessels were weighed while being jacked up before being placed on support stools.

Explaining the firm's use of the equipment, SCS Heavy Lifts & Transports managing director Robin van der Stigchel said: "This system uses feedback from multiple sensors to control the lifting, lowering and positioning of any large, heavy or complex structure regardless of weight distribution, therefore reducing the risk of bending, twisting or tilting.

"We executed this job safely and much faster than we would have if we had been using a regular climbing system."

From here the vessels were transferred onto 16 axle line Goldhofer trailers to transport them by road to a ro-ro terminal on the River Rhein.

This journey was somewhat complicated due to the frosty weather conditions that meant that some street furniture along the route could not be removed. However thanks to careful pre-planning modular trailers were specified for the move that allowed rapid increases and decreases in the trailer units' height.

Once the ro-ro facility was reached, the vessels were rolled onto a pontoon, which sailed them to a cargo port in Antwerp the following morning. All that was left was to load the vessels onto the MV Iwami which was to set sail for Korea the day after.

"This was a typical SCS project", van der Stigchel added. "It combined our long experience in project forwarding as well as using equipment in the more risky parts of a process."