Mobile crane team backs digester membrane installation
A Hird contract lifting team has used the company’s 100t mobile crane to help a client replace a defective gas holding membrane at its anaerobic digestion plant.
The Grove GMK400L mobile crane lifted a ruptured membrane from the roof of a gas holding tank, then supported the client’s installation team in the fitting of a new membrane.
Hird Technical Manager Jake Coulman, the Appointed Person for the lift, said: “A key element was the need to have a crane with a long enough boom to access all points on the tank.
“This was particularly important during the fitting of the new membrane which had to be spread across the tank by an operative sitting in a bosuns chair suspended from the crane jib.”
Compact mobile crane
The Grove GMK400L mobile crane has a maximum safe working load (SWL) of 100t and a maximum working height of 60m, which can be extended by 25.6m with a luffing lattice jib.
Its chassis is just 10.7m long, making the crane highly compact and manoeuvrable.
For this gas holder membrane lifting and installation project, the maximum tip height needed was 48m and the maximum radius was 40m, to lift a membrane weighing 600kg.
Once the defective membrane was removed, the Hird team used the Grove GMK400L mobile crane to lift a new membrane on a roller across the top of the tank.
This allowed the new membrane to be laid out from one side of the tank to the other. A maintenance operative then went up in a bosun’s chair to unfurl the membrane, assisted by a colleague on a scaffold tower inside the tank.
Precise communication
Jake Coulman said: “This lifting process needed precise communication between all members of our team – our mobile crane operator, slinger and site supervisor, who was in charge of the lift.”
All elements of the lift, which was completed in one day, were carried out from one lift position, with the Grove mobile crane supported on 1m by 2m steel outrigger pads to provide additional stability.
The Grove GMK400L mobile crane gives Hird’s crane hire customers excellent control through the combination of robust crane design, matched with the latest digital computer systems.
Its Electronic Crane Operating System – ECOS – gives Hird’s crane operative excellent control. The crane also has a separate command and control system that can work in conjunction with the ECOS or operate separately as a load moment indicator.
All-terrain capability
The Grove GMK400L mobile crane’s Megatrak independent suspension and all wheel steering gives the crane excellent all-terrain capabilities.
This is helpful when lifting on anaerobic digestion sites, which are often located on farms where there are varied ground conditions across work sites.
Find out more about contract lifting services from Hird. We can plan and manage lifts of al kinds with mobile cranes or mini cranes, including pick and carry cranes and spider cranes, anywhere in the UK.
Telephone 01482 227333. Email: [email protected].