Vestas Towers A/S, a global wind power company headquartered in Randers, Denmark, has selected Konecranes America Inc. to supply 56 cranes for its new wind turbine tower manufacturing facility in Pueblo, Colo. Vestas has a targeted completion of the tower manufacturing facility for October 2009.
The order includes both Konecranes CXT and SM Spacemaker type cranes, ranging in capacity from 10 to 45 tons, with spans up to 33 meters. The cranes will be used throughout the tower manufacturing process. Four outdoor, cab-operated cranes feature SM Spacemaker heavy hoists – three equipped with semi-automation and DynAPilot antisway control systems.
These cranes will receive the incoming steel plates and flanges that arrive by railcar and place them into a storage area with a coordinate axis grid system. DynAPilot's teachable-destination feature will assist the operator to take the outdoor cranes to predetermined locations along the three 155-foot runways where product is stored. The operator then picks up the material, manually loading it on a conveyor. Inside the production facility, the cranes are used to handle steel plates in the cutting, rolling, welding and painting operations. Many of the cranes are configured with magnet systems.
‘We are also working with Vestas on similar projects in several other countries,’ says Doug Maclam, vice president of sales and marketing for Konecranes America. ‘Vestas appreciates the consistency of our global product platform, in particular Konecranes' proprietary DynA load control technologies, which manage a number of critical functions to reduce structural stress, increase efficiency and prolong equipment life.’
The installation construction and load testing will be staged over several months, from April to August 2009.
SOURCE: Konecranes America Inc.
