ALE, the global heavy transport and lifting company, has demonstrated the key benefits of an extended lifting radius with a series of record-breaking lifts at an oil refinery in Port Arthur, Texas, USA. Using its AL.SK190 heavy lifting machine – the first use of this crane in North America – ALE completed a two stage project that involved lifting 1338t at 54 metres outreach.
In the initial phase of the project, the AL.SK190 was used to exchange coker drums, removing 6 old drums and replacing with 6 new drums weighing up to 471t each. The crane first lifted a 1,400t derrick structure, which was positioned on top of the existing coker drums at a height of 100 metres, and set it on the ground. The coker drums were then exchanged, and the derrick structure replaced.
The derrick lift performed by the AL.SK190 was the first time a complete derrick assembly consisting of triple drill towers and cutting deck, had been removed and replaced in a single piece.
The lift required a complex tackle arrangement with a 12 point pick up only possible with the AL.SK190 crane.
To successfully complete the project without the need to shut down the coker the AL.SK190 was rigged outside the boundaries of the coker pit. This also enabled the completion of the project with no permanent equipment in the refinery having to be dismantled, and the coke pit wall did not have to be removed.
“This project clearly demonstrated the benefits of the AL.SK190’s lifting radius – we were able to rig the crane off plot, meaning key aspects of the refinery remained operational during the installation. No other crane in the world had the capacity to lift the derrick structure in one piece,” said John Trafford, Operations Manager, ALE.
The crane was then relocated to the refinery’s hydrocracking unit (HCU), where it lifted and installed 8 pieces, including a 625t, 71 metre high fractionator and three reactors ranging from 550t to 1,382t.
“Because of the AL.SK190’s outreach we were able to use existing foundations for the HCU aspect of the project, achieving substantial time and cost savings as any other crane would have required new foundations to be laid,” John Trafford commented.
In addition to the AL.SK190, ALE utilised a 850t tailing gantry and 60 axle lines of SPMT to complete the HCU installation. ALE also supplied all of the engineering calculations and related support.
The 4,300t-capacity AL.SK190, which won the Innovation and Development Award for End Users at the 2010 ESTA Awards of Excellence, has a load moment of 190.000tm, a 141m main boom and a 32.1m ballast radius, and also features a 600t quick winch system for lifting smaller items quickly.
For more information, visit www.ale-heavylift.com
