Wind Energy – Heavy Lift
The Heave Chief 1100 from the Dutch company Seaqualize is a breakthrough in easy, fast and safe installation of the heaviest wind turbine components at sea.
With this compact lifting tool, objects weighing up to 1100 tonnes can be lifted from aboard a vessel and installed.
The HC1100 will shortly be on its way to the USA for its first assignment at a wind farm off the coast of Massachusetts, USA.
Iv-Consult in Papendrecht was commissioned to design all the mechanical components of this innovative steel lifting tool, which will enable companies to continue installing wind farms for most of the year.
This so-called heave compensator is capable of installing heavy components for offshore wind farms more easily, quickly and safely at sea. The tool hangs in the hook of an existing offshore crane and compensates for the motions of the supply vessel transporting the vulnerable wind turbine components.
The HC1100 can hold a suspended load of 1100 tonnes still against the vessel’s motions, thus enabling the largest wind farm components to be lifted and installed from a vessel.
The heave compensator, which has been extensively tested, compensates for the vessel’s motions at sea due to swell, making installation safer, faster, and more straightforward.
In addition to the operation requiring relatively little force, the process is controlled, without the occurrence of large shock loads or unintentional lifts causing the load to land on the vessel multiple times.
