Heavy lifting and transport specialist Mammoet has erected what it says is the biggest goliath crane in Northern Europe at Meyer Turku shipyard in Finland. The goliath crane has a capacity of 1,200 tonnes, a span of 154 metres, and a height of 120 metres. According to Mammoet, the crane will help the shipyard fulfil new orders for increasingly larger cruise ships.
A key focus for Mammoet when installing the crane was to minimize disruption to the operation of the shipyard. There was limited working space on-site, as the goliath crane needed to be erected parallel to ongoing construction work on the cruise ships. As a result, Mammoet said it provided an installation method that required the least amount of space, allowing the shipyard to stay operational. Key to this was to use the legs of the goliath crane as part of the installation equipment. By first erecting the legs, Mammoet explained, these could then be used as a gantry to raise the main girder without the need for additional equipment.
Mammoet used two cranes, a CC6800 and a LR11000, to erect the 540 and 700 tonne legs of the crane. Two additional 500 tonne crawler cranes were positioned at each side of the legs to install the strand jacks for lifting the main girder, which weighed around 2,500 tonnes. To increase safety and efficiency, Mammoet fully pre-assembled the strand jacks on the ground, enabling them to be lifted onto the top of the legs in one go. Furthermore, Mammoet designed various custom lifting tools to make the installation and removal work safer and more efficient.
Mammoet says the new goliath crane was installed safely and on schedule, enabling the shipyard to return to production with increased capacity.
content by 5 January 2018
Source: Mammoet
