Heavy Lifting and Crane Services

01

What heavy lifting covers

Heavy lifting means setting plant equipment, steel structures and wind turbine components in place by crane. The work is defined by the lift rather than the crane: the weight and centre of gravity of the load, its lifting points, the distance between crane and load, and the ground the crane will stand on are assessed together.

We added crane services in 2014. The fleet now includes 600, 750 and 800-tonne crawler cranes and telescopic mobile cranes from 100 to 800 tonnes, and it has worked on many wind turbine installations and on several stages of the STAR Refinery project at Aliağa.

02

Why rated capacity is only the starting point

A crane's rated capacity, 800 tonnes for example, is the maximum it reaches in its best configuration at short radius. As the radius grows, the boom gets longer or counterweight is reduced, the load it can take drops quickly. That is why a crane is chosen for the radius, height, boom and counterweight configuration and ground bearing capacity of the lift, not for the weight of the load alone.

So our 800-tonne Sany SCE8000A crawler crane does not mean any 800-tonne load can be lifted; every job is checked against its load chart. For some lifts a smaller crane that can be set up closer to the load is the better choice.

• Sany SCE8000A crawler crane→
• Liebherr LR1750 crawler crane→
• Liebherr LTM1750-9.1 mobile crane→

03

Lift planning and site preparation

A lift plan brings the crane position, set-up area, rigging arrangement, capacity utilisation and permissible wind speed into one document. Crawler cranes need a large, prepared set-up area, and the ground has to be confirmed able to carry the crane and its counterweight before assembly starts. Mobile cranes set up faster, but the ground under each outrigger pad gets the same scrutiny.

Our crane services come with planning and engineering. We walk the client's team through each plan in briefing meetings, supported by simulations.

• Engineering and lift planning→
• The steps of a lifting operation→

04

Main and assist cranes

Long, heavy items such as columns or tower sections are often lifted with two cranes. The main crane carries the load while the assist crane controls the lower end and lets the piece rotate from horizontal to vertical. On these lifts the movement of both cranes and the way the load is shared are planned step by step.

On the lifting phase at the İsdemir air separation unit, the main lifts were planned with a Liebherr LR1600/2 crawler crane, supported by mobile cranes led by an LTM1500-8.1.

• İsdemir air separation unit lifting phase→
• Liebherr LR1600/2→
• Liebherr LTM1500-8.1→