Folks who live in the Tri-Cities area of Pasco, Kennewick and Richland, WA are used to the huge crane booms that punctuate the skyline at the headquarters of Lampson International. But every now and then, the company fully erects one of its super cranes, which are veritable masterpieces in the realm of crane engineering.
When one of these big cranes starts going up, people pay attention. Shortly after the crane was erected, I received an email from Ron Williams, CEO of WHECO, headquartered in nearby Richland, who wanted to make sure we knew about what was going on at Lampson's plant in Pasco.
"I am home for a couple weeks and see in my back yard a new Transi-Lift 3000 fully erected," Williams said. It is awesome and may be a good story for ACT.”
Giant project
It indeed is a good story for ACT, and we have been following the progress of the crane for more than a year. When we were compiling our "Super Cranes" article for the September issue, I spoke with Kate Lampson, public relations director, who let us in on the secret that the new unit was complete and that testing would begin in October. Hence, we have the exclusive on the new crane and the spectacular photos.
In September, Lampson crews began assembling the crane, which was commissioned for work in the nuclear industry in Japan.
According to Head Engineer Randy Stemp, the crane takes about six weeks to fully erect, and required four assist cranes, including a 350-ton crawler, a 230-ton crawler, a 150-ton crawler and a 60-ton rough terrain crane.
Now that the crane is assembled it will undergo a full battery of testing.
"We will run a series of factory acceptance tests including strain gage testing, main boom and jib tests and operational tests on our crawler transporters and the hoist,” Lampson says.
Stemp says the testing regimen is stringent and will comply with the Japanese Legislation for Cranes and Mobile Cranes (JIS), European Union EN13000 and US ASME B30.5 standards.
“It will comply with all of these standards so we can achieve worldwide certification on the crane,” says Stemp. “We will make a series of tests including main load falls, jib, and auxiliary hoists to verify the operational and structural competence of all components."
Testing will take about three weeks.
For testing, the crane is rigged with 400 feet of main boom, 120 feet of jib and a 20 foot jiblet. It has a capacity to lift 3,000 tons in this configuration, which is the maximum lifting capacity for the crane.
Lampson International has been building the Transi-Lift cranes for more than 30 years, but this latest crane has been updated.
“The difference in this crane and previous LTL models is that it has a 3,000-ton capacity front crawler,” Stemp says. It also has hydraulic hoisting capabilities, a larger boom cross section, a newly designed enclosed engine compartment and an increase from 1 ½-inch wire rope to 2-inch wire rope.”
New features
New technologies include a state-of-the-art electronic hydraulic controls system and Load Moment Indicator, the Lampson-patented boom design that totally disassembles for easy shipping, and the Transi-Lift feature of complete mobility, Stemp says.
"The crane can perform all operations while traveling, swinging and maneuvering in any direction,” he says.
While the crane is still technically earmarked for the nuclear industry in Japan, Lampson says the Higashi Dori project is on hold while the Fukushima issues are resolved.
When the crane is deployed, she says it will take on a variety of lifting assignments. “The many applications for the Lampson Transi-Lift LTL-3000 include power plant construction, dam construction, refinery work, bridge construction and infrastructure projects as well as sports facilities and stadiums and manufacturing plants," Lampson says.
Source: ACT Magazine, November 2013 Issue
