Ropeblock as co-engineer for colossal Sarens crane

Sarens has been one of Ropeblock's customers for many years. This Belgian company is one of the largest crane rental companies in the world. As a global leader, Sarens also develops project-specific products, such as extreme heavy-lifting cranes, that are not available as ‘off-the-shelf’ products. Sarens was recently awarded a project for moving heavy haulage over distances of 100 to 150 metres. The resulting colossus will be used in the oil industry in Kazakhstan for the next three years.

One-of-a-kind

The SGC-140 (Sarens Giant Crane) is capable of lifting and moving 1,000 tons over a distance of 100 metres. When set up for a 30 metres radius, this rotary crane is capable of lifting as much as 3,200 tons. It slews on a ring with an outside diameter of 44 m. Approximately 12 kilometres of steel cable are required for the 130 cable sheaves and 8 winches. The crane's huge lifting block, which weighs 105 tonnes on its own, is rated at a maximum capacity of 3,200 tonnes (2,700 cars!). Ropeblock was given the opportunity of playing a major role in engineering and building this lifting giant. Sarens challenged us to develop a suitable concept for all the components that come into contact with the cable.

Smart Engineering

We worked in close collaboration with Sarens’ engineers to apply the Smart Engineering philosophy that is Ropeblock's distinctive signature. The result is an efficient and cost-effective design. In addition to the lifting block, we also delivered the top sheaves, the boom hoist system and various other components within the required time frame. The final design also included three special Ropeblock products: our patented Super reeve Connector Sockets, sheaves with graphite-lubricated grooves and optimized ramshorn hooks.