Hammerhead modernised
Konecranes has carried out an extensive refurbishment of the river Tyne’s most historic Hammerhead heavy lifting crane, which worked on such exceptional maritime vessels as Ark Royal and HMS Illustrious in the golden era of the North East shipyards.
Operated by Shepherd Offshore and located within their Walker Quays Offshore Technology Park, the modernisation increased the crane’s lifting capacity from 250 to 325 tonnes making it the biggest crane of its kind in England.
In undertaking the overhaul work on the 1930s Walker Quays located crane – initiated by Shepherd Offshore and undertaken on behalf of Newcastle City Council at a cost of £750K – both parties were confident that the refurbishment project would help local engineering firms benefit from millions of pounds of additional orders, whilst also boosting the region’s competitive advantage.
The main items brought out by the design study for upgrade covered the bottom block sheaves and block hook. The former were identified as needing roller bearings that were introduced to replace the existing plain bush bearings, whilst the latter was unsuitable for 320 tonne loads. The plain bush bearings of the top sheaves, of which there were eight, were also changed to roller bearings. Additionally, the jib end sheave and surrounding assembly steelwork were replaced, as were the load rope and load rope guide rollers.
In terms of additional technologies deployed as part of the crane modernisation programme, a PAT Kruger load monitoring and overload protection system was installed, as was Konecranes’ ControlPro & TruConnect remote monitoring system that was introduced as a secondary interfaced device. Finally, specialist structural health monitoring company, McFarland Associates, installed fibre optic strain gauge sensors onto the key structural support members.
