“In a slow oil and gas market, our goal was to give our customers an opportunity to enter a new market for a relative small investment. The 3D Motion Compensator provides new functionality to existing cranes, which can qualify them for new markets, such as offshore wind,” says Ole Andreas Sørensen Product Manager at MacGregor.
VIDEO: MacGregor’s 3D Motion Compensator
The 3D Motion Compensator (3DMC) is a retrofit device designed to enhance the load-handling precision of offshore cranes.
“Any investment must deliver demonstrable operational advantages and the 3DMC retrofit option does exactly that, allowing ship owners to expand the load-handling capabilities of a crane far beyond its original limitations. This means that the crane and therefore the vessel can be used for more assignments and owners will be able to bid on a wider range of contracts,” says Geir Andre Iversen, Hydraulic Manager at MacGregor.
BENEFITS
MacGregor’s standard active heave-compensation cranes are supplied through the crane’s winch, compensates for the vessel’s vertical movements. However, when very accurate load positioning is required, such as landing loads on small, fixed platforms, the 3DMC can be used. It compensates for the roll, pitch and heave motions of the vessel to minimize any movement of the load in relation to a fixed point in space.
The 3DMC can be fitted to the knuckle jib of a broad spectrum of new or existing MacGregor subsea/offshore cranes. It has been designed for easy installation and makes use of the crane’s existing hydraulic power unit and control system. The 3DMC/crane interface is designed so that the unit can be swiftly mobilized to a crane with the relevant fittings. This allows for flexibility within a fleet of vessels, so that one or several 3DMCs can be shared between them.
When not required, the 3DMC simply remains fixed to the side of the crane’s main knuckle jib without interfering with the normal lifting capabilities of the main and whip winches.
THIRD INNOVATION AWARD
MacGregor won the same Offshore Support Journal Innovation of the Year Award in 2014 for its three-axis motion-compensated crane and in 2012 for its Chain Wheel Manipulator.
“Winning the award for a third time really demonstrates our ability to develop and introduce new concepts to the market that have the capability of genuinely transforming offshore operations,” says Eivind Engenes, Project and Technical Support at MacGregor.
