Two Grove units have been used to hoist an 84-tonne barking drum at a paper and pulp facility in New Zealand.
The six-axle all-terrain cranes were deployed to Tasman Mill, one of the world’s largest paper mills, by rental firm, Pollock & Sons Crane Hire.
A Grove GMK6400 and a GMK6300L were selected to conduct the tandem lift, and had to contend with underground constraints and above-ground obstacles.
“Both of the cranes offered quick setup times and the rigging was straightforward, which allowed us to move the cranes around the site with minimal downtime,” said Carl Hawkings, the person in charge of dispatch operations at Pollock & Sons.
“The MegaWingLift attachment on the GMK6400 allowed us to achieve greater capacity when working with longer boom lengths. [Without] it, the lifts on this project wouldn’t have been achievable. The customer was very pleased with the efficiency of our operations,” he added.
Before installing the new drum, the old system was removed in four loads, each weighing approximately 62.5 tonnes. The log decks, which each weighed between 35 tonnes and 55 tonnes, also had to be removed. For these operations, the 400ptonne capacity GMK6400 was configured with its full counterweight of 135 tonnes and the MegaWingLift capacity-enhancing attachment, which increases lifting capacity by up to 70%.
Once the cranes had worked separately to remove the old debarker, they joined forces to lift into place the mill’s new barking drum, which weighed 84 tonnes, had a length of 25m, and a diameter of 3.7m.
“Our biggest challenge was bringing the drum between the two cranes and rotating it witout touching either boom, which would have resulted in damage,” said Hawkings.
“With the two cranes’ differing swing radiuses and lift capacities, a considerable amount of time and planning went into the lift. But our expert team and trustworthy equipment enabled us to complete the tandem lift successfully.
“At Pollock & Sons, we’ve nicknamed our GMK6400 ‘King Crane’, because it really is the ultimate heavy lifter taxi crane in our fleet. “And the GMK6300L is affectionately named ‘Brutus’. Brutus has been an asset since we purchased him in May 2011, with his fast setup and versatility on construction sites,” he concluded.
