Universal Cranes on naval duty

Australian crane rental company Universal Cranes used a Terex CC 2800-1 crawler crane to install units weighing up to 300 tonnes on Australian naval vessel HMAS Canberra.

HMAS Canberra is one of two new 28,000 tonne landing helicopter deck (LHD) vessels being constructed for the Royal Australian Navy. The project was carried out for BAE Systems.

The CC 2800-1 was used to lift and install four modules onto the flight deck of the hull of the vessel. Nick Morris, Universal Cranes heavy lift engineer, said, “The moment when the crane swung the 300 tonne bridge block over the hull was tense but all the lifts went very smoothly and according to plan.”

The CC 2800-1 has a capacity of 600 tonnes at 10 m radius and is fitted with the IC-1 crane control operating system. It is designed for easy transportation and has an open-boom design, allowing smaller boom sections to be placed inside larger sections during transportation. The CC 2800-1 can also be fitted with the Terex Fall Protection System.

For the lifts the 600 tonne capacity crawler was configured with a 72 metre main boom and rigged in superlift lift (SSL) configuration.

Varying centres of gravity on the modules meant that each lift was made in conjunction with an Enerpac synchronised hydraulic jacking system, so load could be lifted gradually by the CC 2800-1 before being lifted into place, a company spokesperson added.

The jacking system was made up of four 110 tonne capacity hydraulic cylinders and provided an overall capacity of 440 tonnes. To complete the set up of the system a 20 tonne capacity Terex AT 20 pick and carry crane was used. The AT 20 was also used to help arrange a specially designed lifting frame.

“Another complication was the size of the Canberra, which meant the use of a dry dock and a traditional crane was not possible,” Morris added. To overcome this difficulty, the CC 2800-1 worked from an adjacent pier alongside the moored vessel, Morris explained.

The vessels will have six helicopter landing positions and a full length flight deck, a company spokesperson said. The vessels are expected to enter service by 2015 and are scheduled to replace HMAS Tobruk and one of the Navy’s two Kanimbla class vessels.