04 October 2024
Fully Electric Crane by MacGregor
The deck equipment specialist MacGregor has introduced a fully electric crane (HCE). In an effort to support more environmentally sustainable products and solutions, they presented a new member of the heavy-lift crane family.
Concept
The HCE is a result of combining MacGregor and NMF’s extensive experience in the heavy lift industry. Note that Macgregor acquired the NMF crane brand with its 2019 takeover of TTS). Hence, the best elements of each side have combined together to develop an industry-leading design that covers lifting capacity up to SWL 1000 tonnes.
Benefits
Key benefits of the electric crane are most clearly evident in the weight and drive system. Particularly, the combination of NMF crane house design principles and MacGregor’s high tensile steel experience significantly reduced the weight of the HCE. This has a major advantage for the pedestal size and cargo capacity of the vessel.
Moreover, the new Variable Frequency Drive (VFD) system improves HCE efficiency by up to 50% compared to the traditional closed-loop hydraulic design. In addition, power consumption can be as much as 80% lower during standby time for lashing and securing.
General VFD advantages include;
- Potential savings in capital expenditure
- Superior cargo handling
- Lower maintenance costs without the need to change oil, oil filters and hoses equally apply to the HCE.
Redundant power supply units have also improved reliability and safety. Hence, enable high system availability and fault tolerance of critical components, and the use of additional brakes.
The HCE is compatible with the OnWatch Scout condition monitoring and predictive maintenance service. Providing the option to include several automation functionalities such as Auto-Drive and Auto-Tandem.
Source: MacGregor
See Also: Giant Offshore Crane (LEC) for WTIV