SOUTHERN EUROPE | REGIONAL REPORT
transition project Green Forge. “The aim,” says Oier Sarasola, Irizar’s global offshore sales manager, “is not only to adapt to future legislation on climate change but also to use the opportunity to improve efficiency as a whole, and so increase the competitiveness of our products and services,” so the company’s carbon savings will lead to cost savings as well. This seems on the surface counter-
intuitive. A forge by necessity needs a lot of heat, and therefore a lot of energy; for a very large concern such as Irizar to go low-carbon is therefore a considerable challenge and hugely praiseworthy. A metal-working facility such as Irizar’s needs a large number of overhead cranes. Irizar is based at Lazkao in the Basque Country; Jaso, the large and international crane-making concern is also Basque- based, headquartered in nearby Idiazabal. Irizar Forge is one of the main suppliers of hooks to Jaso. Jaso in return has supplied the Irizar foundry with a fleet of ten overhead cranes for its foundry. The largest are two 32t double-girder
cranes, one of 16.22m span, the other slightly shorter at 14m. Other double- girder machines range from 6.3t capacity upwards. There is also a 5.0t, 14m span single-girder crane. Among all of these, the 29.5m, 18t double girder crane stands out. It is part of the forging manipulator, which has the job of handling steel parts at 1,200°C while they are being forged in the presses. The crane also transports parts between the furnaces and the presses. It has been designed therefore to withstand the extreme conditions of a forge. The crane has a special open trolley. “The most outstanding feature is the machine’s manoeuvrability in confined spaces, as it can perform simultaneous movements on several axes,” says Jaso’s Antonio Naranjo. “As to capacity, the crane has been designed to withstand the high reactions that are generated due to the fact that the weight of the part to be handled is very far from the vertical axis of the manipulator.” Further to the south is yet another
internationally renowned Spanish hoist- and crane maker. GH is headquartered in Barcelona and, like Irizar, has made reducing carbon emissions a key part of its strategy. GH not only manufactures overhead cranes and gantries: boat-lift hoists are also within its remit – we are talking the Mediterranean here, where leisure boating might as well count as
R The all-electric boat lift from GH.
an industry – and GH in November 2022 introduced what they say is the world’s first all-electric rubber-tyred gantry boat lift boat lift.
The diesel propulsion system of
conventional boat hoists has been replaced by a modular battery system, and the hydraulic circuits that drive the hoist movements now instead have an electric circuit and drives. The GH70e is powered by a high-
performance, lithium-ion battery core – enough onboard storage, GH says, to deliver a full day’s work – and can lift vessels of up to 65 tons. Solar panels are built into the top frame of the gantry – they can supply up to 20% of the daily energy uses, says GH – but there is also a built-in charging device that makes recharging easy. The gantry itself is variable in span, which improves the dry-docking efficiency for boats with different beams. It has electronic steering as well. The battery has a ten-year guarantee. Ander Etxebarria is director of GH’s
e-Motion Business Unit. He regards the launch of the electric marine boat hoist as a worldwide milestone. “Although there are electric marine boat hoists that have made the transition from hydraulic to electric, there are none with a scale comparable to the one that we have
produced,” he says. The GH70e has “all the functionalities that a normal hydraulic marine boat hoist would have, and even some extras”. “To begin with,” says Etxebarria, “by
removing the diesel engine and eliminating CO2 emissions and high noise levels, we also eliminate oil leaks, which are a sensitive issue for boat yard owners since they are companies that work by the sea.” And the savings from the solar panels
are significant: “We have already seen how some customers, after a use of the machine that is not very intensive, have not needed to charge it for several days thanks to the contribution of the panels.” The GH70e is the first of GH’s electric maritime models, but the company has dry land electric rubber-tyred gantries as well, designed for light industrial use. Again, the power is from lithium-ion batteries with the same ten-year guarantee and built-in charging. Here, the batteries are modular. The gantries come in three versions: single girder, double girder and U-shaped, to provide the flexibility this sector requires. On these dry land versions it is the gantry height, rather than the width, that is adjustable: they have telescopic legs to ease moving equipment into and out of industrial warehouses without emissions or leaks.
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