New offshore and wind energy cranes tested with Bredenoord equipment
Thanks to the direct contact and the technical expertise of the Bredenoord installers we could switch rapidly, so that our tests went well.
The Zaandam-based shipyard of KenzFigee, specialist in developing and building cranes and equipment for harbors and offshore applications, frequently includes special installations. The company builds all cranes itself and is therefore able to offer customization in measurements, capacity and more. All cranes go through extensive testing before delivery. However, for the heavy cranes, sometimes with a hoisting capacity over 400 tons, the grid is not suitable as an energy source. In these situations Bredenoord’s gensets are the solution.
KenzFigee has a long history in crane construction. They were among the first to use a heave compensator in cranes, which would neutralize the movement of the waves. Through this technique it’s possible to place things at the bottom of the sea, or a platform with great precision, despite being on rough sea. Angelo Passanante, purchasing manager of KenzFigee: “We always look at our client’s needs for their operations. More and more often we upgrade existing cranes for a specific job.” The construction of a crane can take up to a year. The last weeks, usually ten, are dedicated to testing and official inspections. “Some cranes have a diesel engine and can therefore start by themselves, in which case we use a small genset for lighting and such. However, we also have fully electrical cranes. Those require quite a lot of power for testing, for which we usually have 2x 1250 kVA.”
Innovation in wind energy
Aside from designing, building, providing service and maintaining large offshore and harbor cranes KenzFigee has recently developed innovative cranes, intended for the maintenance of wind turbines on land. “Our sister company LiftWerx from the MeeMaken group provides lots of maintenance to wind turbines in North America. With the use of traditional mobile cranes they would often already lose a week just by setting up and breaking down the cranes. Together we developed cranes, that allow for the entire job to be completed in a few days. This concept has been proven in practice. Gensets are not necessary when testing these small wind cranes, but Bredenoord’s transformers were required to convert the voltage to that required by the North American grid.”
Good communication and fast service
“In the testing trajectories good communication is essential,” says Angelo Passanante. “At the start the installation has to be adjusted properly. Our cranes are almost always custom made for the applications of our clients, in that regard we never turn our back on a challenge. That does require a lot from the testing trajectory with standard gensets. Bredenoord always provides an technician with the right knowledge along with every delivery, who can work well with our own technical experts. And if something has to be adjusted after all, we can arrange that with a quick phone call. Bredenoord always provides us the same excellent service we offer to our own clients. That is what makes the collaboration as pleasant as it is.