Danish crane designer and manufacturer Danish Crane Building worked with Verlinde to supply its biggest ever crane for a wind turbine supplier, operating at Lindø Industrial Park near Odense in Denmark.

overhead crane in wind turbine factory
overhead crane in wind turbine factory
The crane, with a lifting capacity of 140t, incorporated crane components from Verlinde SA, France and was specified to assist with heavy and complex wind power component lifting on the well-known Lindø Industrial Park.

Lindø Industrial Park offers extensive facilities for companies engaged in heavy industry and production.

The crane was the result of a 'fruitful' new partnership between Verlinde and Danish Crane Building in the Scandinavian sub-region.

Founded in 1983 by Christian Overgaard, Ole Furbo and Axel Jensen Danish Crane Building has a long history in the crane business.

A builder and exporter of lifting equipment, notably hoists, headquartered in France, Verlinde has a growing number of distributors across Europe and worldwide.

Danish Crane Building, based in Nibe, Denmark, supplies overhead cranes, jib cranes, wire rope hoists, chain hoists and gantry cranes as part of a broad standard range.

Danish Crane Building claims it has a global level of expertise in the manufacture of engine room cranes developed for ship builders worldwide as well as robot cranes for power plants, waste incineration, dairies, etc.

It believes it is one of the only firms in Denmark with facilities that give it the capability to design, plan and manufacture overhead cranes completely in-house.

This installation was intended for handling specific heavy components, enabled by co-operation between Verlinde and Danish Crane Builders.

Owing to the heavy demands and complexities of the project, the companies collaborated to create the right equipment for the job.

Kristen Jensen, Technical Director at Danish Crane Building, explained the purpose of the heavylifting overhead crane, which would play a part in producing wind power plant components at Lindø Industrial Park for worldwide delivery.

"Wind power plants are now being developed of a size requiring production and transportation facilities on a global scale. These facilities are already present in Lindø Industrial Park and the delivery of the new crane expands the industrial park's already impressive capacity," says Jensen. The rapidly growing wind power industry increasingly requires parts that are much larger than they used to be. The capacities in this facility are twice as large, says Jensen.

"We have doubled the total lift capacity of the building where the crane has been installed."

The crane provided is so heavy duty that changes had to be made to the structure of the building that would house it.

Jensen says: "The upgrade required the reinforcement of building structures that are solved in close co-operation with crane specialists from Danish Crane Building. The result is a robust solution which corresponds to the customer's expectations."

The combined total weight of the new heavy overhead crane at Lindø Industrial Park is over 75t including pulleys, drive gears, steering and all components.

Without the pulleys and other lifting gear, the installation weight is just over 50t.

Overhead cranes of this weight and size are mainly created for large power plants and heavy industry, which have requirements to lift extremely heavy modular equipment like generators.

The power market for heavylifting overhead cranes in is a relatively modest market in Denmark, although offers significant growth potential in the future, the company says.

Danish Crane Building claims that this won't stop it from launching the Danish Crane Building/Verlinde crane as a competitive model in the burgeoning market.

"Only a few customers until now have required crane construction of this magnitude; the enhanced crane product we now offer represents an extension of our product range, with the support of Verlinde, France," says Jensen.

"Our lifting capacity is now increased to as much as 250t and we can span up to 40m in one single span."

Simon Rothechild, business development manager for Verlinde Export, spoke highly of Verlinde's business partner:

"This was an incredibly exciting and interesting project for Verlinde to partner with Danish Crane Builders on. Danish Crane Building has the engineering skills to offer local customers in Denmark highend turnkey solutions to match the capabilities of any global crane designer or manufacturer.

Rothechild says: "With their specialist products and local market knowledge, their local offer in Denmark is second to none."

Thomas Descamps, managing director for Verlinde, said he looked forward to working with Danish Crane Building on future projects.

"We are proud to be a part of this venture with our sole Danish agent DCB, and we look forward to a mutually fruitful partnership as joint opportunities for our co-operation in the Scandinavian subregion grow further," said Descamps.

Supply its biggest ever crane for a wind turbine supplier