BELOW THE HOOK Ӏ SECTOR SNAPSHOT
INNOVATION HOOKED ON
From giant wind turbine blades to offshore pipe handling below the hook equipment is becoming increasingly sophisticated as lifting specialists develop safer, faster, and more efficient ways to manage the world’s most challenging loads. Julian Champkin reports.
Not every load has a convenient place for a hook. The solution? A below the hook device. Below the hook devices are, in fact, needed for all but the simplest of loads. The wind energy sector needs them more than most. The wind sector continues to expand and demand has never been higher. Devices to lift the components of wind farms into place are, therefore, absolutely needed. Yet wind turbines present one of the highest and more complex lifting tasks, and turbine blades one of the most awkward loads
22 CRANES TODAY
Ematec’s RBC-D 50 yoke at the Taubenkopf wind farm, Germany Photo: Cinestyle|FPV/ Ökostromgruppe Freiburg
to lift. They are long, unevenly shaped, and offer no obvious lifting points where a hook might be attached. Even so they must be manoeuvred precisely, some hundred metres or more above the ground, in exact and demanding orientations in order to secure them to the axis of the turbine nacelle – often in windy conditions. Small wonder that they offer a
ready niche for clamps, yokes and other below the hook devices. Crosby Airpes, part of lifting
and securement solutions specialist Kito Crosby, is one of the
companies meeting this demand. One of its flagship products is its wind turbine blade clamp. Turbine blades are not all the
same size or precise shape. For that reason, Crosby Airpes’s clamp is a modular design with sub- assemblies that work with multiple blade geometries from different manufacturers. In this way equipment needs and operational costs are reduced. Complementing its blade
clamp is its tilting system. This is a specialised tool designed primarily for service operations. Removing
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