Editorial comment
On 18 July, the Lifting Equipment Engineers Association (LEEA) will celebrate Global Lifting Awareness Day (search for #GLAD2024). The vision for this annual awareness day is that manufacturers, suppliers, and end users across all industry come together to share materials that promote safe and high-quality load lifting. World Pipelines has been happy to support GLAD for the last couple of years, as we appreciate their spirit of proactivity when it comes to educating personnel to lift safely, and we recognise GLAD’s work in sharing best practice that highlights how different sectors lift safely.
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On 18 July we’ll be posting on social media our top ten lifting-related articles as published in World Pipelines. We’ll be putting safety on show as we highlight pipeline companies using technology and systems to protect the working space and lift with accuracy. We’ll also be showcasing lifting technologies: one of these being vacuum lifting.
I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Bill Solomon, CEO at Vacuworx, about developments in pipeline lifting. We talked about the changing landscape for pipeline construction and associated project requirements, what we need to know about vacuum lifting technology and its place in the pipeline construction sector, and how the technology can adapt to the requirements of different types of pipeline builds. Bill was candid on how customer feedback leads to the development of technology and machinery. You can watch the interview by scanning the QR code on this page (or by clicking here.)
Here’s some recent lifting news: In May, Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industry (ZPMC) launched its JSD6000 deepwater lift pipelay vessel, equipped with a 5000 t fully rotating crane, for both J-Lay and S-Lay pipelaying systems.
Next month, Mammoet will launch the world’s strongest land-based crane, the SK6000, capable of lifting up to 220 m and 6000 t. Huge cranes like this are used for things such as lifting offshore production modules onto FPSOs, and handling giant-sized equipment for the construction of offshore wind farms. High lifting capacity is crucial for the development of renewable energies.
A new Liebherr Ram Luffing crane is now servicing Unity, an unmanned platform on the Forties Pipeline system and is specified with new fully electric handling and lifting solutions. We’ll continue to shine a light on lifting hazards, safe lifting practices, regulations and standards, and more, in the pages of World Pipelines. In next month’s issue we focus on construction safety and project management, to coincide with the annual IPLOCA convention.
