It is common practice for wind turbines to be assembled using a crawler crane. But what can be done when the distance between the individual wind turbines in a wind farm is between one and two kilometres? What's more, the operator wants the crane to be ready to move more quickly, but the forest roads in between are too narrow for the crawler crane to get there on its own track? A case for Cometto self-propelled transporters!
In the north of Wolfsburg, the experts from the Cologne-based heavy haulage specialist HKV were on hand to provide assistance in such a case. Jörg Holtappels, the SPMT project manager, knew what to do: ‘We played our trump card here and put the new horse in the stable to work: the Cometto SPMT, built in a 12-axle combination with a 202 kW Power Pack.’
Crane transport in three parts
With this heavy-duty ensemble, it was possible to only partially dismantle HKV's own Liebherr LR 1700-1.0 crawler crane and thus transport larger units from A to B quickly and efficiently. First of all, the 105 tonne upper and undercarriage with winch and A-frame were moved. This was followed by the complete derrick boom, 42 metres long and weighing a total of 53.8 tonnes, as well as the ballast weight of 200 tonnes.
Turnaround time kept significantly shorter
‘Thanks to the SPMT solution, our customer HKV has reduced the relocation time of the crawler crane by around 1.5 to 2 days,’ says Joachim Kolb, Sales Manager at Cometto, describing the specific time savings. ‘This meant that the overall construction of the wind farm could be considerably shortened and significantly accelerated.’
With a basic width of just 2,430 millimetres and electronic multi-directional steering, the self-propelled MSPE 48T module is ideally suited to such narrow routes. The perfect axle and ambient lighting with the night light kit on the vehicle also had a positive effect, as this ensured safety during night-time transport. Safe and fast ... propelled to the MAX!
Date of publication: 12/2024