MacGregor and Parkburn collaborate on cranes

The crane was co-developed by Parkburn Precision Handling Systems and MacGregor, with the companies agreeing to combine their expertise in fibre-rope tensioning and offshore crane technology.

Baard Trondahl Alsaker, MacGregor’s vice president of R&D and technology, said: “MacGregor recognises that by partnering with experts in specific technological areas, it can deliver solutions that exceed its own capabilities.”

He added: “We see ourselves as being able to integrate the best technology available to deliver systems with technology-leading capabilities.”

The new crane features a fibre-rope lifting system that employs Parkburn’s tensioning technology, this can eliminate heating and degradation problems that are often associated with on-load fibre ropes on winch drums.

It will be introduced to the market as a 150T fully heave-compensated knuckle doom crane with a capability of reaching 4000m water death.

Mr Alsaker continued: “The great advantage of fibre rope in this context is that it weights virtually nothing in water, so regardless of the length of rope paid out, it does not add anything to the load experienced by the crane.”

He concluded: “This is in complete contrast to the situation with wire rope, where the ever increasing weight of wire paid out limits the load permissible in relation to depth.”

The MacGregor fibre rope technology is also suitable for retrofit on existing subsea cranes.

This enables upgrading the capabilities of existing construction vessel fleet without having to build new vessels, an important feature to meet the requirement for reducing the cost level of the industry.