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spotchecksafety

Lifting heavy loads with

two or more cranes

E

As loads get bigger, there is an increasing interest in tandem,

triple, and even quadruple crane lifts. Richard Krabbendam,
who makes a welcome return to HLPFIs writing team, looks
at some of the safety implications in the first of a series of
three articles.
Lifting a 520-ton column with two
truck cranes, a Demag TC-3000,
and CC2000 crawler crane.

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ver increasing dimensions and

weights make it increasingly
necessary to consider the use of two
or more cranes to lift a single load.
Such an operation frequently
requires the preparation of a detailed rigging
plan to determine clearly the limits within
which the lift can be made safely.
The main objective of this rigging plan is
to investigate how possible overloading of
the lift cranes can be avoided. One method
of avoiding overloading cranes is the use of
equaliser lifting beams, but there are other
methods as well.
Careful examination of a cranes capacity
chart is essential before a lift is planned.
Different countries prepare these in different
ways: for example in the past in the
Netherlands, crane capacity charts were all
based on 66/ percent of tipping load, while
in other countries such as Germany or the
USA, the crane capacity charts were usually
based on 75 percent or even 85 percent of
tipping. Nowadays, all capacity charts are
based on 75 percent of tipping moment.
One should also be aware of the fact that
not only the tipping of a crane but also
strength of the boom determines the
maximum allowable lifting capacity. The
strength of the crane boom is usually the
capacity range at short radii, whereas the
tipping area usually covers the larger radii.
In some cases this is clearly marked on the
capacity chart of the crane.
When lifting with a single crane, this
margin against tipping ensures that the crane
can accept a certain overload. Under all
circumstances one must try to avoid
situations in which the cranes rated capacity
is exceeded, but as we all know, in some
cases it happens unexpectedly, for instance
when the horizontal level of the crane is
disturbed by weak ground conditions, or
when wind affects the load.
When lifting with two or more cranes,
the load distribution over each crane can
however be critical and should be calculated
before the lift is made. Most contractors
include an increased safety margin against
tipping of the crane when a tandem lift is
executed. The Dutch safety rules state, for
example, that the capacity of each crane

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should not exceed 75 percent of the rated

capacity when lifting a load with two cranes.
This safety margin can be decreased,
provided a detailed rigging study is prepared
and submitted to the concerned authorities
for approval.

Too strict?

TabLE 1
Load variation at angle of:0

15

30

45

60

75

Lift point A:

55 tons

54.11 tons

53.07 tons

51.66 tons

49.21 tons

42.53 tons

Lift point B:

55 tons

55.89 tons

56.93 tons

58.34 tons

60.79 tons

67.47 tons

As can be seen from this table, the load variation between lift point A and lift point B at 15
is only 1.78 tons (approx. 3.3 percent)

TabLE 2
Load variation at angle of: 0

15

30

45

60

94.66 tons

79.76 tons

57.62 tons

64.5

Lift point A:

110 tons

19.27 tons

0.18 tons

Lift point B:

110 tons 125.34 tons 140.24 tons 162.38 tons 200.73 tons

219.82 tons

As can be seen from this table, the load variation between lift point A and lift point B at 15
is now 30.68 tons (approx. 32.24 percent)

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November/December 2012

During my career in heavy lifting, I came

across quite a few occasions where this general
safety rule is, in my opinion, too strict. Safety
is an absolute must on jobsites, but it is wrong
to apply rules if they are not relevant to a
particular situation. For this reason, I take the
liberty of discussing some considerations
which, in my opinion, make sense when
lifting loads with two or more cranes.
One of the first things to do is evaluate
the lift planned and work out what could go
wrong and why.
This article is the first in a series of three
in which we will look at:
l A long horizontal beam (weight =
110 tons) which is being lifted by two
cranes A and B (one at each end), in
which the centre of gravity (CoG) is
located close (1,500 mm) to the
imaginary line between both lifting
points. See figure 1.
l The erection of a pressure vessel
(weight = 150 tons) from a horizontal
into vertical position with one main lift
crane and one tail crane. The centre of
gravity is somewhere in between the
main lifting lugs B and the tailing lug
A. See figure 2
l The erection of a pressure vessel (weight
= 520 tons) from a horizontal into vertical
position with two main lift cranes and one
tail crane. The centre of gravity is located
closer to the two main lifting points then
the tailing point. See figure 4.
The above three lifting cases are quite
different from a safety aspect. The first is
rather straight forward and does not, in most
cases, require any special precautions.
However, all three cases have one
determining factor and that is the position of
the CoG of the load in relation to the lifting
points (A+B). Depending on the location of
the CoG and the lifting points it could be an
easy and safe lift, or an extremely difficult
and unsafe one. It is the task of the rigging
engineer to determine the criteria by which a
load can be considered safe and easy, or when
it is necessary to take special precautions. In
all cases we want to achieve one goal: the lift
must be made safely and we can only achieve
that when the cranes are not overloaded.
The detailed rigging study should prove
to us and our client how we have effectively

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and safely planned the lift and show that

none of the cranes will be overloaded.

Case Study
The CoG in Figure 1 is just below the
imaginary line between both lifting points A
and B. What is the effect on each crane if
the beam is not lifted horizontally, but one
crane lifts faster than the other? This can
easily be calculated with a mathematical
formula. If we tabulate the values they are as
shown in Table 1 (only 3.3 percent extra load
in point B).
If the distance between A and B decreases
as per figure 3, and the distance of the CoG
to the imaginary line AB increases, it results
in a much larger load variation as can be seen
from Table 2 (now 32.24 percent more load
in point B).
Because of the inclined position, the
CoG moves closer to point B and therefore
the load in B increases.
When the CoG is located exactly on the
imaginary line AB there will be no load
variation at all, if the beam is not lifted
horizontally.
What have we learned from this exercise?
The most important principle is that one
cannot use the same safety criteria for
different multi-crane lifts. Each project
should be evaluated by itself and, if the
location of the CoG in relation to the lifting

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points justify it, one could consider a less

severe safety margin. There are also a
number of practical rules that one must
observe when lifting a beam with two cranes.
l Never allow the lifting tackles to become
inclined during the lift.
l Always ensure that each cranes boom head
is exactly above the lifting point (the lifting
tackle should remain in vertical position.
No side forces should be applied on the
boom). This can be achieved by setting
crane A in free swing mode and
controlling the operation with crane B.

Danger!
There is one other matter that cannot be
overlooked and easily overloads one of the
two cranes if one does not know what
happens, when the beam or a pressure vessel
is lowered on two supports.
Suppose we are lifting a pressure vessel
with two cranes and crane B lowers quicker
than crane A (see figure 4). Consequently
the transport saddle (2) closer to point B
touches the trailer turntable earlier then the
saddle (1) near point A, resulting in quite an
increase of load in crane A. See figure 5
(from 76 tons to 148.4 tons).
When one observes these rules of simple
mechanics and studies closely what happens
when a lift is made with more then one
crane, one can make lifts safely at all times.

Remember: When the support points

(= transport saddles 1 and 2) are not at the
same position in relation to the CoG as the
liftpoints (taillug A and lifting trunions B),
you can be in for an unpleasant surprise, as
the load in one of the liftpoints can increase
significantly. (Crane A load increases from
76 tons to 148.4 tons, when crane B lowers
the load on the trailer on saddle 2 first).
In heavy lift shipping, it is a daily practice
to make use of the combined strength of two
heavy derricks or cranes on board of a ship.
Two 250-ton derricks may be utilised up to
their full combined capacity of 500 tons.
The exercise we did proves that there is no
reason why we should not do the same with
mobile cranes. Of course, all observations
HLPFI
should be taken into account.
Please note, this article is intended for guidance only.
Whilst every care has been taken to ensure the
accuracy of the contents, no responsibility will be
accepted by the publishers for any errors.
Richard Krabbendam has been a heavy lift specialist
during his whole working career after which he formed
Krabbendam Advies Service. A Master of Mechanical
Engineering from Delft University of Technology, he has
worked with BigLift and Mammoet, and was a co-founder of
ITREC. He helped to set up Jumbo Offshore and was involved
in the development of its super heavy lift carrier fleet, the
J-Class, which uses two 900 tonne mast cranes for subsea
installation works. Since his retirement from Jumbo he has
been working as a freelance trainer/engineering consultant.
www.jumbo-offshore.com www.heavyliftspecialist.com

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