the most powerful Crane gets into operation at UK

Can you imagine what this ornate looking object is about !

 

Most commercial contracts would specify coverage under Institute Cargo Clauses (A).  The primary level coverages ICC (C) and ICC (B) are named peril policies......... The risks covered clause under ICC (B) covers sling loss  :

Of the many named perils : 1.3.4. total loss of any package lost overboard or dropped whilst loading on to, or unloading from, vessel craft.

The incidence of this type of loss would be felt more when the loading of bagged cargo occurs mid-sea from barge to big vessels.  At Port the loading would happen with the help of ship’s cranes or with Portainers.   A portainer, also known as a container crane is a large dockside crane in the form of a specialized type of gantry crane used to load and unload container ships.      Container Cranes, like every other crane,  are generally classified by their lifting capacity.  

 

Indian was a landmark movie for the actor, director and the Tamil filmdom. After couple of decades, Indian 2 was being shot and an accident on the sets left the  Tamil film industry  in a state of shock when an accident claimed the lives of three technicians on Feb 19, 2020.  A crane was deployed on the Indian 2 set while shooting a fight sequence.  Many heavy equipment including light thrusters were placed on the crane. Unfortunately, the crane crashed and fell on Sri Krishna (assistant director), Madhu (Art Assistant) and Chandran (production assistant), who dropped dead on the spot. 

Sometime back had posted on  – 308T, far  exceeding the maximum capacity of the so far strongest mobile harbour crane, type LHM 600, by not less than 100T. Thus, the new giant  really raised the bar and opened up new fields of application.  It was a product from a Company which has more than 1,200 cranes in nearly 100 countries all over the world:  that’s the outcome of 40 production years of  mobile harbour cranes. Manufactured in 1974, the very first cranes were exported to France, Italy and Spain.  Since 2012, it’s 1000th  mobile harbour crane has been handling bulk at the French Atlantic Coast.   It is the ‘Liebherr Group’,  a large German equipment manufacturer based in Switzerland specializing in cranes, aircraft parts, and mining.   Introduced in 2015, the LHM 800 became  the largest mobile harbour crane in the market. It had a  lifting capacity of up to 308 tonnes and an outreach of 64 metres. Weighing in at 745 tonnes, the crane has a boom length of 64 metres and can load and unload ships with a width of up to 22 rows of containers.  

Now comes another Giant – far exceeding all earlier capacities – MailOnline reports in details of the world's largest crane completing  its biggest ever lift,  hoisting a 575 ton steel cylinder into place at Hinkley Point.  The super-crane, called the SGC-250 but nicknamed Big Carl, lifted the first of three massive steel rings which form a cylinder around the nuclear reactor being built near Bridgwater, Somerset.  The crane stands at 656ft tall and is higher than several famous structures, including London's Gherkin tower, the London Eye and Big Ben. It is known as Big Carl, after Carl Sarens, the father of the Belgian family business which made it. Able to carry 5,000 tonnes in a single lift, Big Carl is expected to be at Hinkley for the next three years and showed off its impressive ability today.  According to WorldSteel.org, it can lift 20 planes, 63 trains, 126 trucks and 1,408 elephants. 

After being constructed in Belgium, it was transported to the UK in 2019, after being split into several pieces across 280 trucks.  After arriving at the site in Somerset, it was painstakingly put back together using five smaller cranes.  After 10 weeks, Big Carl was booted up in August and it began its first lift in mid-September. It is scheduled to work on the site for four years in a £20 million contract, supported by 52 other tower cranes. The new photos come after Boris Johnson gave the green light to open talks with energy firm EDF on the construction of the £20billion Sizewell C nuclear power station, which could generate enough electricity for around 7 per cent of the UK's power demand.

The site in Suffolk would be a near replica of Hinkley Point C in Somerset, which is Britain's first new nuclear plant in more than two decades and is already being built by the French energy firm with backing from China's CGN. The Government said it would enter into negotiations with EDF – but any deal must be affordable and provide value for money, with the project having already proven controversial with protesters slamming its huge cost.  The Stop Sizewell C campaign group which was formed seven years ago has warned the site will divert investment from other green energy sources such as renewables and would damage tourism and nature in the area. But EDF claims it will generate enough 'always-on' low-carbon electricity to power six million homes and create 25,000 jobs. The energy firm is currently applying for planning permission for the 3.2-gigawatt plant.

Big Carl   hoisted the first of three massive steel rings that will encase one of the reactors at the nuclear construction site in the U.K., a key milestone in getting the project completed on time. Business and Energy Secretary Alok Sharma said: 'Today's plan establishes a decisive and permanent shift away from our dependence on fossil fuels, towards cleaner energy sources that will put our country at the forefront of the global green industrial revolution. 'Through a major programme of investment and reform, we are determined to both decarbonise our economy in the most cost-effective way, while creating new sunrise industries and revitalising our industrial heartlands that will support new green jobs for generations to come.

Interesting !

With regards – S. Sampathkumar
17.12.2020.