Irving Equipment Engineers a Complex Assembly at the Port of Belledune, NB
A team of engineers and operators at Irving Equipment (IEQ) are helping assemble a 1300-tonne stacker at the Port of Belledune in Northern New Brunswick. The stacker will be used to load ships with iron ore in Port Cartier, Quebec; but because of space limitations at Port Cartier, the stacker is being assembled along the Belledune docks. When completed later this spring, the unit will be moved by barge from Belledune to Port Cartier and installed on a dockside rail system.
When the stacker components arrived by sea from the Far East, the heavy weights, unusual shapes, and asymmetric centres of gravity of several of the large pieces required a unique and specialized approach. Irving Equipment spent many weeks planning and engineering to come up with transport solutions that employed the use of a pair of self-propelled transporters and complex arrays of mats which provide a firm, stable surface for the cranes to do the work. IEQ also engineered and set up the various combinations of mats at dockside to accept the component pieces from the ship's cranes.
Over the last two weeks, IEQ's 440-tonne crawler crane (one of the largest in the region) put in place the stacker's forward, intermediate, and counterweight booms. The 100-tonne counterweight boom was a demanding installation as it was necessary for the load to be suspended on the crane continuously for 50 hours while the mechanical connections were made.
Irving Equipment's team for the transporter moves included two crane operators for the 440-tonne crawler crane, a professional engineer, a supervisor, and four operators.
In the end, the large 440-tonne crawler crane successfully set these awkward pieces in place. Meanwhile, IEQ is currently providing smaller cranes for the assembly of the other components.
Now that the IEQ 400-tonne crawler crane has completed its job, it is being disassembled to go to its next job, a windmill project in Quebec.
About Irving Equipment:
Irving Equipment is Atlantic Canada's largest provider of crane rental, heavy lifting, specialized transportation, pile driving, wind energy, and project management services. ISO 9001:2008 and ISO 14001:2004-certified, they can tailor a heavy construction solution that's right for you.
With their in-house engineering, custom technology, and extensive crane rental fleet, IEQ can take on your biggest challenges and get the job done — on time and on budget.
To learn more visit their [website].