ROPE ACTUATED KNUCKLE BOOM

The newly designed Rope Actuated Knuckle Boom Crane is unique in its kind and combines the best of two crane types; the Knuckle Boom and Boom Hoist crane, and offers unique features for optimal operation on subsea installations. It offers the benefit of a light construction of a rope suspended crane design with the superior load control characteristics of a Knuckle Boom crane by minimizing pendulum swing.

All crane motions are actuated by winch and rope. This way the internal forces of the crane are balanced, and the boom and knuckle structures are subjected to much lower bending moments as compared to the cylinder actuated Knuckle Boom cranes. As a result, KenzFigee’s design experts were able to keep the crane structure relatively light as compared to conventional Knuckle Boom cranes. The Rope Actuated Knuckle Boom crane features impressive capacity-over-weight ratios, comparable to those of Rope Luffing boom hoist cranes.

The rope Actuated Knuckle Boom Crane offers the flexibility of working over the Main Boom as well as over the Knuckle Jib without the need for re-reeving. When operating over the Main Boom in single fall, the hoist wires are picked up by the Knuckle Jib when folding out. This does not require any manual reeving operations, as the hoisting wires are secured by a counter sheave that is actuated from the operators’ cabin.

Additional pull-in winches enable the Knuckle Jib to be folded in toward the Main Boom. This allows for lifting operations close to the pedestal e.g. for safe rigging preparations and optimal use of available deck space, yet limiting pendulum swing of the hook block.

Different hoisting modes allow for various operations:

• Lifting over Main Boom
  • lifting of heavy loads
• Lifting over Knuckle Jib
  • handling tall objects
  • increased deck coverage
  • easy and safe rigging preparation near center line
  • reduction of hoist wire pendulum length

With a special rope guiding arrangement, the crane can rotate beyond 360⁰ avoiding blind spots on deck.

BENEFITS

• High Safe Working Load up to 2,000 tonnes
• Decreased hook weight
• Reduced pendulum length
• Full deck coverage including reach at minimum radius
• Minimum deck space blocked in stowed condition
• Lifting height and reach for tall objects
• Heavy objects can be lifted over the main boom
• Tall objects can be lifted over the knuckle jib
• Easy switch between main boom or knuckle jib operations
• Safer operations

Reliability, durability and client’s requirements are paramount.