Konecranes UK awarded Narec’s FUJIN Project Phase II crane supply contract

Shepherd Construction has commissioned the Industrial Crane Division of Konecranes UK to supply two SMT and two CXTD cranes for phase II of the Narec FUJIN project at Blyth in NE England. This follows the previous order of cranes for phase I of this project last year.

Narec is the UK’s national translational research centre for accelerating grid integration of renewable energy systems and catalysing the development and deployment of offshore renewables – wind, wave and tidal energy generation technologies. Project Fujin will be the world’s largest offshore wind drive train test facility rated at 15MW. It will provide land based development and testing of whole ‘power systems’ in conditions representative of the in-field environment.

The two x 250 tonne SMT cranes will operate on a 21.2mt span and each have 30t auxiliary hoists. The CXTD cranes are 30t and 15t on 10.6mt and 8.4mt spans. The SMT cranes will be fitted with KONECRANES renowned technology components including KONECRANES DynA Invertor variable speed control on all motions with the added feature of ESR (Extended Speed Range) on the main hoist and KONECRANES REMOX radio control with back up pendant. All hoists feature KONECRANES ControlPro Monitors where the unit monitors the hoist operation, providing overload detection, brake wear monitoring, and calculates the crane hoist duty allowing 100% planning of maintenance activities to suit the actual duty. The unit also stores and records the number of cycles, overload attempts and temperature trips.

The cranes will also be fitted with travel and traverse limit switches, along with girder and trolley platforms, festoon cables, floodlights, panel lighting, motor and panel heating. A special feature will be the ability for remote monitoring of all the crane functions which will enable any developing problems to be diagnosed and dealt with in advance of causing any operational problems.

The latest contract is valued at £1.14m and delivery will be made in August