Handling heavy payloads 45 minutes faster

Lindø Port of Odense (LPO) in Denmark is a leader in handling and loading large components and equipment for the offshore and heavy industries – and home to one of the biggest gantry cranes in northern Europe. Even more impressively, LPO managed to cut the time it takes to complete a lift by 45 minutes. How? Simply by switching to lightweight slings made with Dyneema® SK78 fiber.

Delivering upgrades on size and efficiency

Among other specialties, LPO is a Bladt Industries manufacturing location and storage depot for jacket foundations used for offshore wind turbines. With the growing interest in wind power and the concurrent running down and decommissioning of North Sea oil and gas platforms, LPO expects demand for its facilities to keep rising. In this case, therefore, management’s twin goals were to create more space and to achieve a time and cost-efficiency leap forward that will give the companies based there a significant competitive edge.

The problem with polyester slings

Part of this competitive edge involved upgrading the rigging used with the LPO gantry crane, one of the biggest and strongest in northern Europe. It can lift components, equipment, and ships weighing up to 1,000 tonnes – making it exactly the kind of lifting gear you dream of when moving 63-meter wind turbine jacket foundations weighing up to 665 tonnes each.

But size only tells part of the story when it comes to efficiency. Until 2016, LPO Transport Division used polyester slings with its heavy lifting gear. Polyester slings, however, have several disadvantages if your goal is maximum efficiency. Those used with the LPO gantry crane, for example, had a diameter of 101 mm and tipped the scales at 186 kg. Modern alternatives can do the same thing at a fraction of the diameter and weight – enabling a massive reduction in rigging time.

Lighter, thinner lifting slings with Dyneema® SK78 fiber

With this in mind, the LPO Transport Division decided to learn more about Dynamica SafeLift slings. Made by Dynamica Ropes using Dyneema®, the world’s strongest fiber™, these slings are up to seven times stronger than steel at the same weight. The 186-kg polyester lifting slings could be replaced by alternatives made with Dyneema® SK78 fiber that were equally strong but more than 75% lighter, with a weight of just 45 kg. With lifting capabilities above a mammoth 4,500 tonnes, these Dyneema®-based slings were ideal for supportingLPO’s heaviest lifting operations – as well as making them faster.

To LPO, the potential benefits of switching to Dynamica SafeLift slings were striking. “We always examine both the theoretical properties and the actual physical condition of new lifting gear before we use it – and we were very impressed by Dynamica Ropes’ lifting slings on both counts,” says Peter Blazejewicz, Manager Lift & Transport Engineering at LPO. “Choosing these products turned out to be a great decision.”

“In the case of our numerous jacket relocations, the weight reduction of the new slings meant that we saved at least 45 minutes on each lifting operation. Since each one involved our 1000-tonne gantry crane, a 103-meter lift, and a crew of five to seven people, the cost saving was also substantial.”

Peter Blazejewicz, Manager of Lift & Transport Engineering, LPO

Riggers prefer lifting with Dyneema®

And LPO soon discovered another benefit of switching to Dynamica SafeLift slings made with Dyneema® SK78 fiber: better conditions for the riggers who work there. “Rigging with polyester slings had been physically demanding for the rigging crew,” says Blazejewicz. “The switch to SafeLift slings made this task easier for them.”

“Two persons must be capable of handling the lifting sling […] and on top of that, the slings enabled them to reach all four lifting points in one go, without having to move the truck around.” Enes Hadziefendic, Technical Consultant, Dynamica Ropes