Roller energy chain replaces cable tenders on 900-ton heavy Goliath shipyard crane

Maintenance-intensive cable routing replaced with robust heavy-duty energy chain

For this 900 tonne single girder Goliath crane, the operator previously relied on a cable tender system to guide the cables to the trolleys. As the tension on the cables led to high maintenance requirements over time, the decision was made to replace it with an energy chain system. Since then, a heavy-duty roller energy chain from the 5050RHD series has been in use.

Profile

What was needed: Heavy duty roller energy chain of the 5050RHD series
Requirements: A reliable cable guide was required for 200 m travel, which protects the cable in terms of the longest possible service life and does not place excessive tension on it.
Sector: Crane industry
Success for the customer: By replacing them with an e-chain system®, the cables are guided safely without being strained. The roller energy chain also reduces the required drive power to less than 25 %.

5050RHD roller energy chain on Goliath shipyard crane

Problem

Two crane trolleys travel 200 metres on this single-girder Goliath crane and are supplied with power and data. The cable packages required for this reach a weight of around 28 kg/m for the upper trolley and 18.6 kg/m for the crane trolley travelling below.
For many years, the operator relied on a cable tender to guide and move the cables. However, the resulting tension on the cables led to massive cable failures, resulting in an increased risk of failure and high maintenance costs. Consequently, the shipyard operator decided to switch to a new system in 2015 in order to save costs and time during ongoing operations.

Solution

As the shipyard operator had already gained initial experience with our chain systems on other Goliath mobile cranes, it was an obvious step to use e-chain® from our range in this case too. Due to the long travel distances and heavy cable weights, rolling energy chain systems should be used on Goliath cranes. The heavy-duty roller energy chains of the 5050RHD series installed today minimise the required drive power to less than 25 % and are robust enough to guide all cables safely and reliably. An important advantage here was also that the cables are not stressed by excessive tension in the chain and its service life is increased.
In order to optimise our products for the requirements of cranes, we test and develop our energy chains and cables in practical tests on our own 3,800 m2 test site.