DECK EQUIPMENT
AHC knuckle boom crane. ‘The design and performance of these cranes far exceeds similar cranes in the market and represents a technological development towards larger and more powerful cranes,’ said the company. The first example of these type HMC 4840
LKO cranes has now been delivered and is in operation with an unspecified customer. The crane is equipped with a 106mm non-rotating steel rope spooled onto an underdeck winch. The maximum operating depth of this crane is 2600m and maximum single line crane load is 320tons. Heave compensation is of the semi- active type, on the winch, operating at speeds exceeding 2.0m/s.
TTS back into offshore January saw the emergence of Norwegian ship equipment supplier TTS Marine as a significant force in the offshore cargo crane market with the launch of a comprehensive range of cranes. The company, which, until its withdrawal from the offshore market five years ago had a strong presence – especially for seabed cranes able to operate in 400m-3000m of water – has already secured a number of new orders. Norwegian owner J Hagenaes Shipping is
Deck cranes for offshore support vessels and construction vessels – such as a 60ton AHC Hydramarine crane for McDermott for use in the Caspian Sea on behalf of BP, shown here being loaded into a transport aircraft - are getting larger and more powerful all the time.
among the first tranche of TTS customers to take advantage of the new venture, and has ordered six 60tonne cranes, each equipped with 2000m of wire, for a series of multi-purpose subsea vessels building in India. Dutch maritime supplier Vroon Offshore
the drive motors of these winches are also on the rotating winch frame. A review of some of the key features of the
massive crane highlights its size and complexity: the main lower block weighs 100tons; the boom is 90m in length; the electrical diagrams run to 1143 pages; the energy supply is 3 x 6.6kVAC/3000kVA; the back-up supply is 3 x 400VAC/900kVA; the crane has a total of 2.5km of cabling; the three-phase motors have 43 components of up to 200kW a piece; the frequency converters consist of a total of 21 separate items, four brake choppers, and four 500kW brake resistors. The PLC I/O comprises six remote I/O stations; a redundant Profibus; and has 600 digital inputs, 50 analogous inputs, and 200 digital outputs.
Deepwater challenges With the current boom in the offshore market and a level of exploration and production activity not seen for many years has come a demand for larger and more powerful offshore cranes, as construction vessels and related ships move into deeper water. Operators of construction vessels are not just
requesting cranes that are capable of working in ever deeper water – the new generation cranes also need to be capable of handling ever heavier loads, and manufacturers report that they have been benefiting from a high order intake. Manufacturers such as Hydramarine in Norway
have particularly benefited from the offshore boom, and have secured significant orders for large, active heave-compensated (AHC) subsea cranes. They also report that demand for knuckle- boom cranes has been running at a high level at yards such as Ulstein Verft and Aker Langsten that build larger types of offshore vessel.
56 Hydramarine ended the year 2006 with an
order backlog that exceeds Nkr1.1 billion, with deliveries secured well into 2010. ‘During the fourth quarter of 2006 the company played host to several large delegations from major international customers visiting engineering, assembly, test and installation facilities in Kristiansand to discuss and finalise projects with us,’ said Hydramarine. ‘Demand for our cranes stretches over our entire product line, including large AHC cranes, ROV/subsea handling systems and rescue equipment.’ Describing recent developments in the market,
Hydramarine said the trend continues to be ‘bigger and deeper’ and the company has also noted a trend for more flexible solutions in which cranes are self-contained and equipped with a bolting flange in the lower end of the pedestal, enabling a crane to be easily installed or removed, depending on available charter for the vessel. ‘On the other side, some of the larger systems are integrated into the vessel structure, with winch and HPU mounted beneath the deck, and we have also delivered cranes equipped with a two-winch system, a crane-mounted subsea winch and a second winch mounted below deck, routed up through the crane centre and on to the crane jibs.’ One notable recent delivery saw a 60tonne 3292
Series AHC subsea knuckle jib crane designed and built by the company transported via air using a heavy lift aircraft in order to minimise the delivery time. The jibs and operator cabin were disassembled from the rest of the crane in Kristiansand and transported by truck to Oslo, loaded into an Antonov 124-100 cargo plane, and flown to their final destination in Asia. Another recent highlight is what Hydramarine believes is the world’s most highly specified
Services has ordered two 50tonne cranes with 20m outreach and 500m wire capacity for subsea operations. The cranes will be mounted on two new dive support vessels to be constructed for Vroon in India. Other orders have come from Riise Underwater
Engineering AS (RUE) and an unnamed Norwegian operator. Several TTS customers, including RUE and Hagenaes, will also be supplied with a TTS Marine Active Heave Compensation unit, a system which is able to cancel the influence from the vertical heave motion on a vessel, enabling the crane driver to place the load safely on the seabed regardless of the motions of the vessel. ‘Demand for cranes for use in offshore
operations is currently very high, so we are delighted to be back in this market,’ said Kjetil Roksvåg of TTS Marine. ‘We are also adding a wide range of other products for offshore cargo handling, including winches for seabed operations, remote operated vehicle (ROV) handling equipment, and deep sea deployment systems.’ Another Norwegian manufacturer, National
Oilwell, said it had been contracted to supply large offshore cranes for well known contractors such as Solstad in Norway, and Boa/ Taubatkompaniet, for whom it was contracted to supply a pair of huge 400-tonne cranes for a construction vessel. As the winches for these ‘super cranes’ have
grown in size and weight, so they have to be accommodated in new locations, usually on the tank-top, rather than above deck. National Oilwell’s scope of supply for Boa’s
multi-purpose construction vessel includes a 400-ton ‘Hydralift’ pedestal-type knuckle- boom crane, with an external, active heave- compensated winch of the type described above.
THE NAVAL ARCHITECT FEBRUARY 2007
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