Blue Water Shipping has received the world’s largest reach stacker for lifting offshore wind components, from NC Nielsen.
The equipment, delivered to the Esbjerg seaport in south-west Denmark, lifts 152 tonnes on the hook and was developed through close cooperation between NC Nielsen and Blue Water Shipping over several years.
The reach stacker has now been commissioned at the harbour area in Esbjerg.
As an alternative to cranes, the converted Konecranes 4545 reach stacker with the heavy lifting of towers, nacelles, frames and components alongside the other heavy-duty machinery.
Blue Water Shipping port services division general manager Soren Messmann said: “Now we can handle the heaviest lifting and transport tasks ourselves by combining our machines for the different projects.
“For instance, we can lift objects of up to 250 tonnes with the world’s largest reach stacker on one end and one of our 100 tonne reach stackers on the other – or operate with extremely heavy objects hanging on the hook.
“This sets us up to handle the transport projects of the future.”
Strict requirements regarding the machine’s performance had to be satisfied, and the technical specifications were defined in cooperation with Blue Water Shipping’s customers in the offshore wind industry.
Increasingly large as well as heavier components, the bearing capacity of the soil at the storage site, new types of lifting equipment and the desire for the hook to reach all the way to the ground were among the technical challenges.
Messmann said: “We have had fantastic cooperation with NC Nielsen.
“We have carried out open, joint and constructive development work with plenty of ideas on the table.
“NC Nielsen has been good at grabbing the ideas and turning them into technical solutions. There have been no restrictions in principle, and that way of thinking moves the boundaries of what is possible.”