April 26 - Modulift has supplied a customised below-the-hook solution to marine engineering specialist MAATS Tech for help in lifting an 85-tonne load from the dockside onto a vessel at Hyundai Heavy Industries' shipyard on Mipo Bay in Ulsan, South Korea.
The cargo, which measured 19 m x 7 m x 7.5 m, included a pipe/cable tensioner, container housing, power cabinets, product guide chutes and a space frame.
MAATS project manager David Smith explained that the dimensions meant that it was a challenge to locate the centre of gravity of the load.
"Modulift was contacted after being recommended by a sub-supplier to discuss what was proving to be a difficult lift due to the size and shape of the structure concerned."
He added: "The lifting design and delivery of the rigging was made in a very short lead time enabling MAATS to ship the rigging with existing planned shipments, thus saving cost on sending it to South Korea separately."
Sam Horsfield, mechanical design engineer at Modulift, commented: "Weight and centre of gravity are always important considerations and we make sure we get this detail from the outset in addition to as much technical information and illustrations as possible. For example, we needed to know about lug locations, distances between them and the general lifting environment. We also needed to decipher if rigging gear would be hampered by the tensioner's dimensions, shape and protrusions."
He added: "Based on the information provided to us about the load and given there were no significant headroom restrictions to speak of, we suggested a cost-effective solution that provided MAATS with a stable, four-point lift. The configuration is common but the length of the spreaders required made it a bespoke job."
The Hyundai shipyard stretches over 4 km along the coast of Mipo Bay and has nine large-scale dry docks with seven Goliath gantry cranes, one of which was utilised for this 85-tonne lift.
