Mammoet has officially completed testing of the SK6000, which it says is the world’s strongest land-based crane.
As offshore wind components grow to reach stronger wind flows, the device ensures the future constructability of today’s planned wind farms, Mammoet said.
As the market develops, and lifting to heights beyond 171m is required, its jib can be fitted to enable lifts of 3,000 tonnes to 220 metres.
After reviewing the SK6000’s engineering design earlier during its development, Lloyd’s Register confirmed the test program was suitable to prove out its capacity charts.
Testing was then carried out at Mammoet’s Westdorpe facility in the Netherlands over the last three months.
A comprehensive functional test programme confirmed the crane operated to its specification, and to the strictest safety levels, Mammoet said.
Next followed structural and stability testing, during which the SK6000 was subjected to a range of lift weights and conditions, proving all components withstand 125% overload.
These studies covered the maximum extents of all load charts for the crane, for all main mast configurations, from shortest (127m) to longest (171m).
At its most strenuous, this process tested the crane to a maximum load moment of 520,000 tonne metres.
This is well over one and a half times greater than the rated load moment of the SK350 – which was previously the world’s strongest land-based crane, according to Mammoet.
The SK6000 helps the company’s customers across the energy sector to build on a larger scale than ever before, using modularised construction techniques to build in parallel and enhance the efficiency of assembly phases.
The SK6000 will now be boomed down and containerised, ready for shipping to its first project in early 2025.