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Goliath gantry cranes are usually used in shipyards, so when you stand on top of one, the first thing you notice is that it’s windy, and you want to hold on to your hard hat. Glancing down, the second thing you notice is how tiny people are on the ground - it's a long way up. But when you look around at your level, the third thing you notice is the breath-taking view. There's a wide cityscape on one side and a vast, flat expanse of blue ocean on the other.
The crane's dimensions are impressive. A typical Goliath is about 100 meters tall - almost half the height of the Golden Gate Bridge; 150 meters long - more than twice the wingspan of a 747 jumbo jet; and weighs 5,000 tons - roughly the same as 50 blue whales. Considering what they do, Goliath cranes need to be huge. These are the machines that put together the hulls of the world's biggest watercraft.
Cruise lines today invest in giant ships that resemble
Main girder on the way to a customer site
floating cities, with over 6,000 passengers on board. The latest cargo ships carry more than 20,000 containers. These massive vessels are assembled in blocks, like enormous toy bricks. The blocks can weigh up to 2,000 tons - as much as 300 elephants - and the Goliath is the crane that picks these pieces up and puts them in place for welding within millimeters of accuracy.
Such a big structure is under enormous strain, as the legs want to bend inward, and the gantry wants to bend downward. The single girder design makes it stronger, with better rigidity. Two 83-meter A-frame legs provide vertical stability to support the load, as well as resistance to prevent twisting and falling over. The crane lifts and lowers the big ship blocks, moves its trolley and goes along its tracks using some combination of its 42 electric motors, powered from the harbor mains by a cable reel. The motors work in combination with electromagnets and a 99% efficient gearbox to generate the physical strength to move these giant loads.
Konecranes started making Goliath cranes in 1972. With 6 cranes currently on schedule for delivery around the world, by spring of 2022 we will have provided 79 Goliaths to our customers worldwide.
Manufacturing, delivering and erecting a Goliath is a massive engineering project, so it takes about two years from initial order to handover. Whether it's done as a turnkey delivery, or if Konecranes provides the basic design and key components while the customer manufactures the crane themselves, there are many things to consider, including:
• Available space on-site (it's a big crane)
• Access to water channels (they're building ships)
• Erection method (requires special engineering & equipment)
• Ground bearing pressure (does the shipyard surface need strengthening?)
• Stabilization (unmoving cranes can be tethered to concrete with steel wires)
• Support cranes under the main structure (Goliath doesn't always work alone)
• Other shipyard activities (the yard can't be shut down)
The Goliath crane in the Meyer Turku shipyard, in southern Finland was an interesting challenge for Konecranes because we erected it in winter, and it had to work in the winter atmosphere. We added heaters to the pumps and working locations. We had to erect the legs on the top of the bogies quickly, before the deepest cold of the winter set. Heated plastic tents draped on the scaffolding provided some cover and warmth, but despite this, work is always slower in the cold, and we couldn't erect the crane when strong wind came. We had to schedule the heavy operations to be done in suitable “wind windows”.
Today's massive cruise ships are like floating cities, with thousands of people on board, and the biggest cargo vessels can carry tens of thousands of containers. The equipment to put these ships together has to be big. Although its power sources, components and safety features have developed as technology has advanced, the basic design of the Goliath has remained the same. It's a masterpiece of engineering that has contributed to the global growth in tourism and trade by helping to assemble ships for the last 50 years.
To get an idea of how big a Goliath crane really is, watch the video (LINK).
Konecranes provides service, equipment and parts in a wide variety of industries around the world.
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in southern Finland was an interesting challenge for Konecranes because we erected it in winter, and it had to work in the winter atmosphere. We added heaters to the pumps and working locations. We had to erect the legs on the top of the bogies quickly, before the deepest cold of the winter set. Heated plastic tents draped on the scaffolding provided some cover and warmth, but despite this, work is always slower in the cold, and we couldn't erect the crane when strong wind came. We had to schedule the heavy operations to be done in suitable “wind windows”.