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This ones going to leave a mark

crane operator

crane operator

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catman13 said:
made in china, saving a couple of dollars always costs more money
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Probably not chinese. Liebherr is german and builds almost everything in house. They source a few things out of house, but its stuff like starters from bosch, transmissions from ZF, that sort of things. They own their own engine company, and steel cast their own counterweights. I don't know if they build their own hook blocks, but I would be surprised if they didn't, because of how much of their own stuff they make.

Everything I've been around with liebherr is top notch stuff.

Welder Dave said:
Aren't hooks and any other lifting devices supposed to have a 4 to 1 safety factor?
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You're exactly right dave, its supposed to have a safety factor. Some items are 3 to 1, some stuff is 5 to 1.

My guess is a engineering error on the safety factor of the hook block, and it sure looks like a complete failure of the attachment between hook and block. All the load hooks I've been around use a threaded head holding in the swivel bearing.

I don't know where there would be a test bed to test the hook to 15,000 tons, that's some pull.
 
W

Welder Dave

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If they wouldn't have scrapped Big Muskie or the Captain they'd have 15,000 tons to test it. Do they make hydraulic test beds that could measure in PSI and convert to weight?
 
crane operator

crane operator

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Two rigging suppliers I know both have test beds. One is 50 ton, the other I think is 100 tons. One uses a tensionmeter, I think the other one reads a pressure transducer on the hydraulic pressure circuit.
 
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Ronsii

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I doubt they'd scrap the whole thing, other than the booms, jibs and back supports It didn't look like there was enough of a hit to hurt the upper and lower slewing parts??? guess we'll have to wait til' the engineers and surveyors get into it.

Hard to say just how much stuff was made offshore... since it was a chinese vessel partnership I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't have some of the parts started there??? But I do agree the German Liebherr stuff is top notch.

Also I thought I read somewhere this was only a 110 percent load test...
 
John C.

John C.

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I might be out in left field on this but every crane I dealt with on an insurance job had a shock load factor that scrapped out most of them. Usually a mechanical engineer would do some kind of inspection and then some figuring and would not sign off on the machine being sound for any rated weight. It might be different for marine application because the boat has some give but my guess most of that pedestal and all the rigging is scrap metal. Maybe the Liebherr people self insure. Is that a spindle on that hook block where the hook should be. It kind of looks like the end of an axle spindle. It will be an expensive accident investigation.
 
Cmark

Cmark

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It's not too hard to conceive of a test rig. Something along the lines of anchoring the hook to the floor and using hydraulic jacks to lift the block.
 
muzy

muzy

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I am not a crane operator, but still am glad I was not in that cab when the block shoot past then landed on the roof..sort of.
 
R

Ronsii

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Wow, just really hard to believe the block wasn't tested on it's own from the mfg.... unless it was and during install something was not assembled right???
 
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Welder Dave

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Failed at 2600 tons, not even close to rated capacity let alone a safety factor. I wonder if this supplier is going to be on the "hook" for the 80-100 million in damages? Somebody really screwed up.
 
crane operator

crane operator

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K

Kiwi-truckwit

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crane operator said:
I did some looking in to that RollOver Pete. I think a company in Holland called "rope block" makes their smaller hook blocks. At least the ones in their brochures look just like the liebherr ones I've been around. But I have no idea if they made the one for this crane.

https://ropeblock.com/static/default/files/documents/downloads/Ropeblock Lifting & Rigging_Imperial.pdf
Click to expand...
I saw somewhere else that the hook was made in Holland, so perhaps it's the same company.
There's a video floating around on Facebook of the lift from a different angle, starting from before the failure. It looks as though it was the boat listing over that caused the boom to go over the back, as opposed to the shock unloading.
 
crane operator

crane operator

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"Ropeblock" has issued their own statement-

"The Dutch company says it provided the design of the crane’s lifting blocks and crane hook but outsourced manufacturing to “a certified supplier who is familiar with parts of similar and larger sizes”. Ropeblock adds that prior to manufacturing the design has been verified by the authorized body."

Taken from this article:

https://www.energypeople.com/news/s...n-accident-as-company-issues-initial-findings

So in other words- their lawyer hasn't read the paperwork enough to know if they can stick the "authorized" supplier with it yet. I find it interesting that they didn't name the supplier.
 
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