Gulf Coast job with Sarens’ Boom Booster

International heavy lifting and transport service provider Sarens, based in Belgium, helped lift a 641 tonne distillation column in the Gulf Coast region of the United States.

The column was 87.1 metres tall. To lift it into position Sarens used its Terex CC 8800-1 lattice boom crawler crane. The crawler has a capacity of 1,600 tonnes and can be fitted with a Boom Booster kit.

The lift required the crane to work at a radius of 28 m with 96 m main boom. To ensure the CC 8800-1 would have enough lifting capacity it was fitted with its new Boom Booster kit.

Guntram Jakobs, Terex Cranes product marketing manager, said, “Our Boom Booster allows our 1,600 tonne class crane to out lift any crane model in the 1,000 to 2,000 tonne class and some 3,000 tonne capacity cranes under certain conditions.”

The Boom Booster’s lower and upper adapter segments flare out to a 10 m width. Five 10 m segments offer up to 50 m system length needs.

For the Gulf Coast distillation column project, Sarens used both the upper and lower transitioned segments plus the five intermediate segments. In this configuration 72 m of the CC 8800-1’s 108 m boom consisted of the Boom Booster kit.

Travis Stav, Sarens engineering manager, said, “This increased the crane’s lifting capacities by 5 % for this configuration, giving us the necessary increased capacity and rigging headroom to lift the vessel.”

With the kit, the crawler’s capacity was increased to 773.5 tonnes when configured with 108 m and 24 metre working radius. A total of 470 tonnes of counterweight was used on the Superlift tray, which was operated at a 30 m radius.

Travis Stav said, “We had limited Superlift tail swing clearance due to a power transmission line adjacent to where the distillation column was placed.

“Throughout the entire lift the CC 8800-1 crane ran smoothly. The operator was able to provide precise movements requested by the client to position the load with ease,” Stav added.

During the lift it was vital that the ground bearing pressure did not exceed 12,202 kN/square metre. The crawler’s two 14.4 m long and 2 m wide tracks helped spread the load. Stav said, “The crane also provides real-time ground pressure to the operator on a display inside the cab, so he knows the crane is within load-bearing limits.”

After the lift was completed, the crane components were dismantled, and the CC 8800-1 was shipped back to Sarens’ yard. The entire project took a total of four weeks.