Mexican logistics firm uses hydraulic gantry to install 324-ton gas turbine

18 April 2023

Tradelossa, a Mexican company specialising in logistics solutions for ultra-heavy project cargo, oversized, manoeuvres and assemblies, has used its new Enerpac Super Boom Lift SBL1100 hydraulic gantry to install a 324-ton gas turbine at the Salamanca Combined Cycle Plant in Mexico.

The layout of the 836MW power plant construction site meant the 11m-long, 4.9m-high and 4.3m-wide gas turbine needed a 22m header beam to enable it to be positioned.

Tradelossa engineers designed and constructed a header beam, and with technical support from Enerpac also produced an extension cable, enabling the gantry and side shift units to be controlled as a single integrated lifting system from the SBL1100 Intelli-Lift wireless control system, which comes as standard. The wireless system is said to ensure automatic synchronisation of lifting and side shift units with accuracy of 24mm and automatic synchronisation of travel with accuracy of 15mm.

The turbine lifting manoeuvre started with a longitudinal movement of 11.80m, then a transverse movement of 9.50m, and finished with a vertical movement of 3.40m.

“Overall, the operation took just over four and a half hours, a speed record time in Mexico for this type of manoeuvre,” claimed Fernando Miranda Herrera, manager of engineering and maintenance, Tradelossa. “This was our first project with the SBL1100, and we were impressed with its performance.”

Ahead of the turbine move, Tradelossa engineers received three days of training at the Monterrey Tradelossa facilities to understand the SBL1100 gantry and side shift operation.

Equipped with three-stage lifting cylinders, the Enerpac SBL1100 lifts up to 12m at the top of the third stage and can handle up to 1,178 tons at the top of the first stage. The Enerpac modular electric-powered, header beam side shift units allow gantry users to customise the ‘below the hook’ distance to suit header beam dimensions and project requirements.

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