Roller energy chain moves 61kg/m cable weight for 900t shipyard crane

A solution had to be found for the new 900 tonne Goliath shipyard crane installed in 2010 in order to safely move the large number of cables for supplying the trolleys with power and data. The single-girder crane works with two trolleys. While the lower trolley carries a cable weight of 32.7 kg/m, the crane trolley at the top moves 61 kg/m. The biggest challenge was therefore to move the heavy cable weight reliably over a 200 m travel distance and to find a robust guide system for this. The operator was also looking for a long-term solution for the various cables themselves in order to avoid costly crane downtime.

The use of a rolling energy chain is suitable for the long travel distances and high cable weights. For this reason, we advised the operator to use our 5050RHD series heavy-duty roller energy chain, which is perfect for large crane systems. The rollers reduce the drive power required for the chain to less than 25 % compared to sliding energy chains. Long travel distances, fast travel speeds and high cable weights can thus be realised. The cables also come from our chainflex® cable portfolio. They are specially designed for moving applications and - like our energy chain - are tested in our in-house laboratory over an area of 3,800 m2 both indoors and outdoors.
Due to the high cable weights of over 60 kg/m, the energy chain is used as a multiband e-chain®, i.e. with additional chain bands for increased stability.