Refurbished floating crane

Polish marine electronics integration specialist Navinord has installed a new load monitoring software package on a 440 tonne capacity floating crane, which is based in Gdansk, Poland. The package includes four load cells from UK manufacturer Straightpoint.

The crane was built in Bilbao, Spain, in 1971 and was known as Consulado De Bilbao Dos. It was bought by ship and boat repair and maintenance firm, Marine Projects, which renovated it in 2017 and renamed it Conrad Consul.

The crane has two pairs of hooks. At the front are two 100 tonne capacity hooks; while behind them are two bigger 200 tonne capacity units. The crane’s overall capacity, however, is only 440 tonnes as, while four hooks can be utilised for a single lift, not all of them can lift to their full capacity at the same time.

On each hook is a 25 tonne capacity Radiolink Plus load cell from Straightpoint. These were installed during the crane’s refurbishment in 2017.

According to Piotr Cywiński, marine electronics specialist at Navinord, the crane’s new load monitoring system (LMSmk1) is capable of gathering data from up to 16 strain gauges. In addition to the four Straightpoint units, two other devices provide feedback on boom line forces. All devices feed data to a master computer that can be read remotely, over the internet, and-or in Consul’s cab. The system also provides error notifications and generates information graphs covering designated time periods.

The crane is also equipped with navigation and communication devices, primarily for use in marine salvage, ship emergency response service (SERS), and wreck removal applications. CCTV facilitates lifts that are out of the line of sight, such as when lifting inside a cargo haul or when another vessel might be obscuring the operator’s vision.

Consul is powered by two Voith Schneider propellers that provide propulsion and steering in one unit, while a new generator, power converters, chain blocks, lifting ropes, glass wheelhouse, and steering consoles were among other new installations.