Photo courtesy EUROGATE

The first four container handling gantry cranes for the EUROGATE Container Terminal Wilhelmshaven, Germany’s only deep-water container port, arrived Tuesday morning aboard the ZMPC’s Zhenhua 23 after a two month journey from Shanghai.

The massive Super-Post Panamax container cranes are capable of handling vessels up to 25 container rows wide, meaning the cranes, and port, will be able to accommodate the world’s largest containerships — Maersk’s “Triple E” class containerships will measure just 23 container rows wides.

Each crane weighs in at 1,750 tons with a usable jib length of 69 meters and a load bearing capacity of 120 tons.

Photo courtesy EUROPORT

Container Terminal Wilhelmshaven has ordered a total of 16 of these massive gantry cranes that will eventually line the Wilhelmshaven quay wall.  The first phase of development, which is expected to go into operation by August of this year, included the order of eight of these cranes that will span a 1,000m section.  A second container vessel carrying four more cranes for the first phase of development is expected to depart from Shanghai soon.

“We view these container cranes as an investment in the future,” said Marcel Egger, managing director of EUROGATE Container Terminal Wilhelmshaven GmbH & Co. KG and member of the EUROGATE Group management. “Currently the world’s biggest container vessel with a load capacity of 15,550 TEUs has 22 container rows on deck, while all other mega carriers, including the 18,000-TEU ship on order have 23 container rows on deck.”

The container gantries will be moved ashore one by one during the coming weeks and made ready for trial operation.

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:

IHC Merwede has announced that the launch of the heavy lift vessel Oleg Strashnov for Seaway Heavy Lifting that took place on 22 August 2009, at the IHC Merwede Offshore & Marine facility in Krimpen aan den IJssel, The Netherlands.

With its 5,000 tonne crane capacity (double the lifting capacity of the Seaway Heavy Lift ship Stanislav Yudin) the vessel is the largest monohull heavy lift vessel in the world and is the largest vessel ever built by IHC Merwede. Oleg Strashnov will be an impressive Dynamic Positioning Class 3 heavy lift vessel designed for the installation and removal of offshore platforms, subsea construction and special projects. Seaways tells us:

The new ship will be a state of the art crane vessel available to our clients worldwide. A unique feature of the vessel will be an innovative hull shape, for which a patent is pending, which will enable her to have a transit speed of 14 knots, combined with exceptional working characteristics for a monohull design. This combination will contribute to a further successful execution of projects. Lift heights of 100 m for the 5,000 mt main hook and 132 m for the 800mt auxiliary hook enables the vessel to undertake an impressive range of projects from dual hook upending of large jackets to heavy deck installations. The installed DP3 system also enables the vessel to be employed for the installation of large and heavy subsea structures, TLP/Spar foundations and topsides.

The introduction of the vessel will more than double Seaway Heavy Lifting’s capacity.

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