Shipyard takes heavylift record

Shipbuilder Tersan Tersanecilik has installed what it believes to be the biggest overhead crane in Turkey.

The 1,000 tonne machine, manufactured by Vinçsan, has a maximum lifting capacity of 550 tonnes. It has a 65 m span, a 50 m hoisting height and a total height of 67 m. Hoisting speed is 2 m/min, while trolley speed is a maximum 20 m/min.

According to Tersan Tersanecilik it will be in operation for 18 hours a day once the shipyard, located in Yalova, north-western Turkey is fully fitted out and in production. Therefore, Energy saving is a crucial factor.

A power regeneration system was supplied by local company Control Techniques. It comprises three 500kW rated parallel Unidrive SPMD 1424 AC modular drives in regenerative mode, which feed all the motor drives on the crane.

The two main 275 tonne hoisting motors, from Control Techniques' sister company Leroy Somer, are driven by further SPMD1424 modular AC drives. An auxiliary hoisting motor is controlled by a 55kW Unidrive SP AC drive and a travel motor by a 44kW Commander SK AC drive.

There are 20 travelling motors, which are electrically controlled in groups of five. The system features control of the brakes via the drive software and constant power hoisting via feedback from load-cells to prevent overload and regulate speed.

During lowering operations, the system automatically moves into regeneration mode to feed energy back into the CAN-bus system to provide significant savings in overall energy consumption, says the manufacturer.