The demand for energy, globally, is going upwards year on year. To cater to global energy demands, the renewable energy sector has been a decent contributor in the past & looks to have strong growth opportunities in near future. With an emphasis to reduce the “cost of energy” from the renewable sector, the organizations worldwide are working tirelessly toward research & new developments. In all of this, India has gained strong importance due to the enhanced quality of manufacturing offered by the workforce in comparison to peers. Also, affordability and competitive cost of manufacturing has given greater exposure for all major wind turbine & associated component manufacturers to come to India & set up their manufacturing plants to cater to their export markets.
While setting up their new manufacturing plants in India & even during upgrading their existing factories, the global windmill manufacturers were on constant lookout to find their ideal material handling solutions provider. Their search ended with ElectroMech; who has always been at the forefront of completing such daunting tasks effortlessly. ElectroMech has been catering to the renewable energy sector for over 15 year
Challenges
Components used for manufacturing windmill turbine blades, wind towers, nacelle, rotor assembly, etc. are designed and developed for extreme weather conditions, robustness, performance, and reliability. The highest up-time and maximum operating efficiencies are the key essentials for any windmill.
Nacelle is one such critical part of the windmill, which consists of the turbine-generator assembly and is mounted on the top of the wind tower. A nacelle typically weighs around 75t to 140t based on the output of the wind turbine. It also consists of a rotor hub at one end to which all the blades are attached.
The most obvious choice for lifting heavy equipment in a manufacturing plant would be an EOT crane or a goliath crane. ElectroMech has supplied cranes ranging from 40 tons to 150 tons for the lifting of the rotor and the entire nacelle itself for assembly, inspection & dispatches. These critical assemblies are being lifted easily using ElectroMech Cranes
Blades of the windmill are manufactured using a unique composite material and by shaping it like an aerofoil with the help of molds. The blades are quite long exceeding 60 meters in length and are manufactured in two parts. The two separate pieces are then assembled together using cranes. This is where the challenge lies. Handling the blades with a single crane is absolutely not recommended.
Most of the time, two or three cranes (depending on the length) have to be operated in tandem to lift a single blade. This is to ensure that the blade does not crack or lose its shape. ElectroMech cranes have been specially designed for smooth tandem operations ensuring the highest safety while handling long & heavy blades.
A wind tower manufacturing plant uses a host of high-end plate bending machines & leading welding technology. Based on the lengths of the towers, the “cut section length” of the towers to be manufactured is decided. The major manufacturing plants in India have set up large fabrication shops & plate storage yards in their plants. The tower manufacturers have a high demand for catering to their end client needs for delivering a large number of towers.
For handling steel, fabrication & semi-finished towers, the tower manufacturers require multiple cranes in the same shed. Usually, the weight of the tower sections ranges from 15 tons to 45 tons depending on capacity of the windmill & & desired length of the entire tower.
ElectroMech has catered to various tower manufacturers and supplied multiple cranes. Some of the top manufacturers have integrated plants, where manufacturing of nacelle as well as towers takes place.
Benefits to the windmill manufacturers
The wind sector benefitted largely because of the hands-on experience of ElectroMech, the leading crane manufacturer in the industry. May it be heavy capacity EOT or Gantry cranes, or may it be craning with tandem operation or multiple cranes inside a single shed; the application engineers & design team of ElectroMech uniquely craft tailor-made solutions for various material handling demands.
The sales team is highly trained & maintains a solution approach rather than a product-based approach. This unique ability of team ElectroMech has yielded multiple orders in the industry from various global windmill manufacturers.
ElectroMech can manufacture the sleekest of cranes for a customer, ensuring that the “building heights” or “shed heights” are maintained at a minimum, even after achieving the desired lift height under the hook. With lowered building heights, the cost of construction is reduced thereby optimizing the investment cost drastically.
To ensure high uptime, these cranes are well maintained & serviced by sound technicians from the services organization Cranage. May it be spare parts support, crane health assessments, or annual maintenance contracts – Cranedge undertakes all kinds of crane & related material handling services.
“Are you facing any storage-related material handling challenges – call us for action!”
