Offshore compensated lifting Sneak peek #3

First peaks on how-to safely lift offshore wind turbine components from a heaving deck, out in the open ocean.

One of the more complicated lifts during a feeder barge transfer operation is the blade rack lift. The blade rack lift has a very spread out foot print (2 tower sections at opposite far ends of the barge) and a relatively light weight. Excessive pitch motions of the barge due to waves rolling underneath can cause one end of the barge to be high, when the other end is low. This results in a higher risk of a re-hit between the deck and the blade rack towers.

The Seaqualize HC1100 can support such a lift by lifting very fast, and by timing the lift exactly when needed, thus keeping the position of the barge into account. At the same time, the HC makes sure that the towers of the blade rack won’t come clear of the guides due to the rolling motions of the barge. The machine ensures sufficient load remains on deck while compensating wave motions over its 3,5m compensated stroke.

Below is footage of such a fast-lift of a GE Halliade X 13 MW turbine blade rack. It’s lifted from the deck of a 400ft flat barge deck. The fast-lift has a speed of ~70 cm/sec (42m/min).