One of the world’s most advanced heavy lifting systems has been deployed in Australia to maximise safety and precision during maintenance of a huge dredger at the largest coal mine in the Southern Hemisphere.
The PLC controlled Enerpac Synchronous Lifting system was used to enhance precision and safety while monitoring the 2200-ton load’s centre of gravity during the lift on Dredger 16 at Loy Yang Power.
Dredger 16 is longer than the MCG (200 metres), as high as a 16-storey building (55 metres) and has a slew ring bearing 15,2 metres in diameter containing 177 balls of 200mm diameter each weighing 32kg. It weighs a total of more than 5.000 tons and can remove 60.000 tons of overburden a day. The successful lifting and balancing of its huge superstructure illustrates the versatility of the Synchronous Lift system for major industrial and civil engineering tasks, including manufactured structures, buildings, bridges, oil platforms, ships, turbines, generators, mills, mining equipment and heavy but delicate computerised/electrical equipment. The Synchronous Lifting technology chosen for the task of hoisting Dredger 16’s superstructure to inspect and refurbish the giant machine’s slewing ball race uses digital synchronisation control accurate to within a 1 millimetre between leading and lagging lifting points. The hydraulic technology involved is the same type chosen to maximise safety on some of the world’s most precise lifts.
