Saren’s Dirk Verwimp to speak on modularisation at CATAP conference, Singapore
13 August 2014
Dirk Verwimp will use his presentation at the International Cranes and Transport Asia Pacific (CATAP) conference in Singapore on 30 September to discuss the continued trend towards modularisation – and increasingly heavy loads – in the oil and gas, mining and infrastructure sectors.
Verwimp, Sarens advisor for EPCM projects (engineering, procurement, and construction management), based in Australia, will discuss the advanced planning and combined lifting and transport techniques – including self propelled modular transporter (SPMT), strand jacking and cranes – that are allowing the use of ever larger modules of plant, equipment and structures.
His topic, Large modules: forward planning and reducing costs, will be one of the presentations at the CATAP conference on 30 September. The full programme is at: www.khl.com/catap
“We will show the options that are available: how you can handle loads, carry out preventative maintenance and improve safety, and use creative thinking”, said Verwimp, “We can use 3D visualisation and combine five or more techniques to execute a lift and shift.”
He said that this kind of modularisation and large module sizes has been common in the oil and gas sector for many years, but was now increasingly being used in other sectors, including mining and infrastructure. Examples include the shifting of 3,000 tonne, 50 metre long tunnel boring machines, and the transport of fully assembled mining machines that previously had to be transported in pieces and assembled on site.
Verwimp said that the infrastructure sector in Europe, North America and Australia has been transporting large items, for example, entire bridge units, for several years but that “there is still a lot more to do” in other parts of the world.
Other speakers at the conference include Rajiv Biswas (chief Asia economist at IHS), Bryan Cronie (Mammoet), Steve Carter (Leighton Contractors Asia), Cor-Henk Roolvink (Foster Wheeler Asia Pacific), John Stewart (Manitowoc Cranes) and Han Soe Kyaw (founder of Two Elephant Crane and Forklift in Myanmar.)
Representatives from XCMG, Sany and Zoomlion will provide an overview of current trends in China’s mobile and tower crane markets as well as the use of cranes on the country’s nuclear energy programme.
The conference is supported by the Singapore Crane Association, Singapore’s Work Safety and Health Council, CICA and the SC&RA. The event’s Gold sponsors are Terex, XCMG and Zoomlion. Silver sponsor is Sany, and the supporting sponsors are Modulift, Scheuerle/Nicolas/Kamag and LSI Robway.
CATAP takes place as part of the three-day Singapore Crane Fair, comprising the Crane Carnival on Sunday 28 September, the Singapore Crane Safety Symposium on Monday 29th, and then CATAP on Tuesday 30th.
Booking is now open for the Safety Symposium: click here to visit the registration page.
The three-day event is a joint effort organised by several organisations, including the Singapore Cranes Association (SCA), the Singapore Contractors Association Ltd (SCAL), the Workplace Safety and Health Council (WSH Council), International Cranes and Specialized Transport and its publisher KHL Group, and Singapore’s Ministry of Manpower (MoM).
