Friday 22 May 2015

Protea launches new cranes

Protea, a global manufacturer of offshore handling equipment, will be launching not one, but two types of game changing heavy lift cranes at Nor-Shipping 2015 in Oslo on 2-5 June.

Both cranes, by a combination of efficient, innovative design and the use of ultra-high grade steel in their construction, set new standards in lifting performance and structural efficiency.

“The target of any marine crane design is to provide high lifting performance whilst minimising overall weight. Over the past three years we have been developing the technology and construction methodology to allow a step change in the structural efficiency of heavy lift cranes,” explains Tomasz Paszkiewicz, Protea’s CEO.

“We are now able to deliver high performance heavy lift cranes that comply with the relevant Class requirements but with a weight saving in the order of 40 % in comparison to existing cranes of a similar capacity.”

The two new crane types are:

HEAVY LIFT FLOATING CRANE
The first is a 1600mT SWL floating crane targeted at the offshore wind market for the installation of offshore wind turbines. It provides a high capacity lifting capability at both short and long outreaches over a large radius, a key feature for offshore wind farm operations.

HEAVY LIFT CARGO CRANE
The second is a 450mT SWL versatile cargo lift crane that can be used for handling both shipping containers and bulky items of hardware. Typically supplied as a working pair and designed to allow safe tandem lifts, the saving in crane weight translates directly to an increase in cargo capacity for the cargo vessel.

In another innovation, both cranes can be supplied with a fully electric drive system with locally mounted permanent magnet synchronous motors to provide efficient and precise operation of all crane functions.

The cranes will be manufactured at Protea’s industry leading production facility in Kluczbork allowing the high quality equipment to be supplied on a cost effective basis.

In addition to the new cranes, visitors to Nor-Shipping will be able to learn about the full Protea range including offshore winches, launch and recovery systems, and heave compensation systems.