12,481 employees, 64 wheel powered hydraulic jack transporters, 1000 foot floating drydocks plus assorted gantry and tower cranes are some of the most important tools being used by Samsung Heavy Industries Shipyard to build vessels that cost up to $5 billion each! But the most impressive industrial behemoth they own is undoubtedly the 3000 ton double boom sheerleg floating crane used to transport mega-blocks.

What’s a megablock? Well, first a little background on how the world’s largest ships are constructed…

A mega block is one of a set of large components, assembled from bow to stern, that make up a ship. Samsung builds the blocks one sheet of steel at a time through the process of cutting, and welding steel plates together. Once assembled on large concrete parking lots surrounding the shipyard, each block is fitted with pipes, electric cabling, ventilation and the parts required inside the ship’s hull.

At this time the ship is essentially built, but exists in up to 2 dozen separate pieces that need are fitted together like an big-block Lego set. Moving these blocks from land to sea requires hydraulic jack transporters with 64 wheels which scoot under the megablocks and enough hydraulic power to lift thousands of tons. But the blocks still need to be set inside the dry-docks, which will be filled with water to float the ship.

Historically a crane could only carry up to 500 tons to the docks, meaning that smaller blocks would be constructed on land leaving gantry cranes the job of going back and forth in to move countless blocks to the docks to build a single ship. But megablocks, 3,000-ton large blocks at a size that was 5-6 times larger than the previously-used blocks, are more efficient – fewer need to be built for each ship.

To accommodate these mega-blocks Samsung purchased huge machines mounted on enormous barges. Called double boom sheerleg floating cranes, these jumbo-cranes are among the largest and most powerful in the world capable of lifting up to 3,000 tons of steel.

In the past 90 blocks were required to build a large oil tanker, but by using mega-block technology coupled with sheerleg cranes, only ten megablocks are needed. This has shortened the ship construction period within the drydock from three months to 1.5 months and allows to Samsung to have the highest dock-turnover time in the world. By maximizing technology and utilizing new crane design SHI was able to maximize production volume and reach a record of just over one mega-ship launch per week!

As for the crane that does the lifting. crane has 8 main hooks, each with a 1000T capacity at an 82 meters boom heel.  The entire structure is supported on a steel barge that’s maneuvered with the help of powerful tug boats and set in place – with only millimeters of tolerance – by massive anchors spread out like spider-webs from the hull of the barge.

Some operations, however, are too large and complicated for the human brain to comprehend by words alone. For those times when we need to understand the seemingly impossible, video is the only way to go. The following is video of a mega sheerleg crane in action setting a 10 story steel accommodations megablock on top of a brand new $750 million dollar, 750 ft long, 137 ft deep offshore drillship. The video was taken using time-lapse photography but the overall operation – from lifting the megabuck from land to setting it precisely (within millimeters of accuracy) in place – takes only about 6 hours to complete. Take a look:

A time lapse of the ZHEN HUA 5 on May 5th 2007 in Harwich Harbour carrying away a Port of Felixstowe ship to shore crane. The cruise ship Princess Danae passes in the foreground. YouTube Link

pbase‘s description of above photo:

Zhen Hua 6

This vessel is the most recent of six specially designed vessels built
for the specific purpose of transporting container cranes. It is equipped
with rails, high capacity pumps, a winch and an additional anchor,
two winches located at the back to ensure the crane moves smoothly.

ZPMC‘s ZHEN HUA 6 Vessel arrived at Deltaport the week of April 18th, 2005.
She brought three of the worlds largest Super Post-Panamax Cranes after leaving
China by ship four weeks ago, two of which are headed for Vanterm with a scheduled
delivery in the week of April 25, 2005.
Zen Hua 6 Photo Gallery

rigzone.com brings us this look into how heavy lift works?

With major drilling and production facilities located offshore, the oil and gas industry must rely on an efficient and safe way to install this equipment. Through experience and innovation, the industry has developed a number of ways to overcome heavy lift challenges offshore.

There are two main methods of marine installation of heavy equipment. The conventional way to install major facilities, such as topsides and production equipment, is through lift barges, while floatover installation has been gaining acceptance as a method of offshore installation, as well. Additionally, new techniques for performing heavy lift operations are being developed. Read Full Post at rigzone.com

A few months back we brought you photos of the world’s largest crane being built, today we show you it in action.

It is the world’s first fixed dual-beam gantry crane, with an unparalleled lifting capacity of 20,000 tonnes. The crane is named “Taisun” after a sacred mountain in China’s Shandong Province reflecting its size, strength and inspirational qualities.

In 2008, Yantai Raffles Shipyard celebrated the much anticipated First Commercial Lift by Taisun amidst a blaze of fireworks and the expectant gaze of the 750 strong local and international guests, lifting the massive 14,000 MT Deckbox of COSL Drilling Europe AS’ (“COSL”) Semi-submersible Drilling Rig, the ‘COSLPioneer’, and mating it onto the Columns and Hull of the Rig in one single operation, demonstrating an unprecedented feat within the industry.

The Taisun crane has been commissioned by YRS until 2010 to complete at least 9 lifts over a 24 month period.

Click here to view the embedded video.

For more information on the world’s largest crane, check out the YRS website HERE

A worker is seriously injured after a crane collapses at Southampton Dock.  According to BBC:

Fire crews were called to Southampton Docks, owned by DP World, at Dock Gate 20 in Western Avenue, at 0520 BST.

The crane, a twin boom rig with the cab suspended on rails, toppled on to the ship, Nyke Themis, the coastguard said.

It is the second serious incident involving crane operations this year and the Unite union said it has “deepened concerns” over worker safety.

Matt Tipper, Unite regional industrial organiser, said the injured man is one of its members.

The man, reported to be the crane operator, has been freed from the wreckage and taken to hospital with life threatening injuries including injuries to his legs.  More video from this incident can be seen on BBC HERE or check out some more pictures HERE.

Image via sfexaminer.com

A massive 328-foot crane arrived in San Francisco Bay last week to start working on the Bay Bridge’s eastern span project.  The crane, called the “Left Coast Lifter“, was built specifically for the Bay Bridge project in Shanghai, China and is the biggest floating crane ever to hit the west coast.  It arrived aboard the MV ZHEN HUA 22 and passed under the Golden Gate bridge en route to Pier 7 in Oakland, where it will be tested before being moved into position at the Bay Bridge.

The crane’s boom is 328 feet long, weighs approximately 992 tons and is capable of lifting over 1,800 tons of materials.  At a height of about 30 stories, the West Coast Lifter will tower 150 feet over the existing bridges roadway.

Monday, The Georgia Ports Authority (GPA) announced the arrival of four new super post-Panamax cranes at the Port of Savannah aboard the Dockwise M/V Tern.  Garden City Terminal now has the largest fleet (23) of ship-to-shore cranes at one facility in this country.

The cranes are part of the GPA’s long-term strategic growth plan to accommodate 6.5 million TEUs of capacity by 2018, doubling its current capacity.

Fully assembled, the cranes are approximately 425 feet long, weigh 1,369 tons and rise 180 feet above the water with a 34-degree incline.

Modern and environmentally friendly, the four new cranes are the largest of their kind in the world, with the capability of handling super post Panamax vessels the size of 22 containers wide. The state-of-the art cranes were designed in Finland and built in China by Konecranes VLC in China.

The new cranes are energy efficient and will be powered solely by electricity. “The cranes will generate more than 30 percent of their total energy requirements by tapping into the power of gravity and kinetic energy,” said GPA’s Director of Engineering and Maintenance Wilson Tillotson. “For every one hour each of these cranes is operational, it uses its own power for approximately 18 minutes.”

Source: Georgie Ports Authority

Interesting Note: The U.S. Coast Guard closed access to the Savannah River for only the second time in the ports history while police closed road traffic over the Talmadge Bridge as the cranes passed below.

More Photo’s from flickr search “Savannah crane”:

Coast Guard reported an 8' gap going under the bridge

Video

Click here to view the embedded video.

Via TugBoatLife

oobject.com brings us this story on 10 of the world largest floating cranes.

10 enormous floating cranes

Aside from their spectacular size, what makes floating cranes unusual and interesting objects is that they are essentially boats. As such, they don’t exactly conjure up the idea of stability, which is the primary requirement for lifting things. They also look weird since boats usually consist of large hulls with smaller superstructure, here the arrangement is reversed making them seem very ungainly. Some of these cranes can lift tens of thousands of tons, at sea, and are engineering wonders.

A while back we post this incident photo of two large gantry cranes collasping under strong winds at Jaxport.  Well Thanks to Fred Frey in this Maritime Monday and TugboatLife.com for pointing us towards video of this incident, which is now circulating the web.  I think TugboatLife nailed it by saying “looks like a starwars scene.”  Let’s take a look…

Click here to view the embedded video.

August 13, 2008: From what appears to be the result of strong winds whipping through the area, a 125 ft., 950-ton container crane collapsed, slamming into a second crane of the same size.  Both cranes crumbled to the ground in a heap of twisted metal, damaging a third crane.

The cranes, located on Jaxport’s Blount Island Marine Terminal in Jacksonville Fl., cost an estimated $6M each.  Luckily, no injuries were reported.

Investigators are looking further into the incident, as the cranes have withstood tropical storms for 25 years without a hitch.

For more information on this and other maritime incidents, check out Cargolaw.