Heavy lift pair for Chipolbrok

Chipolbrok, the Sino-Polish shipping company, is upgrading its fleet with the building of two 30,000 dwt newbuildings at Shanghai Shipyard. The contract includes an option for a second pair. The ships will each have a 640t lifting capacity in addition to a container capacity of around 2,000 TEU.

As with the existing fleet, these new tweendeckers will be geared to carry general cargoes, dry bulk cargo and containers in addition to project cargoes requiring heavy lift facilities. The vessel?s principal dimensions are 199.8m long overall, 27.8 m beam, and 10.3m design draft. A single two-stroke engine will drive a FP propeller and give these vessels a service speed of 19.5 knots.

The engine is a seven-cylinder Sulzer RT-flex60C engine with a maximum continuous output of 16,520 kW at 114 rev/min. Wärtsilä says Chipolbrok?s expectations in operational economy and reaching the highest environmental standards created a clear preference for the camshaftless RT-flex technology.

For each vessel, Wärtsilä will also supply three 6L20 auxiliary engines with a combined output of 3,060kW at 900 rev/min.

The versatile pair is scheduled for delivery in August and November 2003. After delivery, the vessels will operate between Europe and East Asia.

The ships will feature a comprehensive outfit of MacGregor hatch covers as well as the group?s new heavy-lift deck cranes. The specification includes high-stowing folding-type hatch covers for all five holds. The foremost hold will have a hatch cover comprising 2 + 1 panels arranged fore and aft on the centreline and yielding a clear opening of 18.96m long x 19.18m/12.95m wide. The hatch cover for number 2 hold will have 2+2 panels port and starboard, each set giving a clear opening 25.28m x 10.5m while Nos. 3 and 4 covers will have a similar arrangement but with each set offering clear openings of 31.6m x 10.5m. A two-panel cover providing openings of 12.64m x 11.45m will be fitted to the aftermost hold.

Container stack loadings of 50t for TEUs or 65t for FEUs will be accommodated on No 1 hatch cover, while Nos. 2-5 covers are designed to accept 70t or 85t stack loadings. External hydraulic cylinders located at the hinge arms will execute opening and closing of the covers and the covers will be supported by MacGregor?s flexipad bearing pads.

The tweendeck hatch covers will incorporate both high-stowing folding-type sets and lift-away sets. The MacGregor foldtite sets, operated by external hydraulic cylinders, will serve the upper and lower levels in Nos. 1 and 5 holds, with either 4+4 or 4+2 panel configurations. These will provide clear openings ranging from 12.64m long x 10.15m wide to 18.96m x 16.06m/8.93m. The covers will be designed to accept a uniformly distributed payload of 4t/m2 and container stack loadings of 35t/TEU or 45t/FEU.

Operated by the ship?s cranes, the lift-away cover sets serving Nos. 2, 3 and 4 tweendeck hatches will in total comprise 112 panels, each measuring 3.12m long x 10.4m wide and arranged over two levels. The lift-away covers are designed with similar load ratings to those of the foldtite tweendeck covers.

Cargo handling gear will consist of two 320t capacity GLH cranes and two 50t capacity GL cranes (one forward and one aft). The Chipolbrok vessels will be the first to be fitted with the new GLH crane which, in this application, will have a 35m-long jib for use in container handling, with a 40t capacity at the maximum outreach. With the two GLH cranes working in tandem, the vessels will be able to handle loads of over 600t.

Chipolbrok owns and operates a fleet of 20 multipurpose tween-deck general cargo ships with heavy-lift capabilities. MacGregor produces hatch covers at two plants in China, one in Nantong and the other in Fuling in the Chongqing area. It has a partnership with Luzhou Machine Works, based in Nanjing, for the production of cranes.