Scheuerle Hands Over Two Heavy-Duty Industrial Transporters to Taiwanese Ship Builder

For the Taiwanese ship builder, CSBC China Shipbuilding Corporation, the well-known vehicle manufacturer SCHEUERLE has built and delivered 2 additional industry transporters (also known as SHTs). Kaohsiung-based CSBC already has a number of these special vehicles from SCHEUERLE as well as its sister company KAMAG. CSBC is a state-owned shipyard of the People’s Republic of China. At two Taiwanese facilities, CSBC builds and repairs industrial vessels as well as military ships, cargo ships, oil tankers, container ships along with purpose-built vessels for the transport of complete oil and gas production plants.

Each of the heavy-duty industrial transporters from SCHEUERLE is 18 metres long, 7.5 metres wide and 1.5 metres high and have been designed to move ship sections weighing up to 500 t for CSBC in Taiwan. Both vehicles are equipped with eight axle lines respectively with two quadruple-tyred pendulum axles in each case which means loads are transported on a total of 64 wheels. The hydrostatic drive guarantees jerk-free setting off and continuously variable acceleration. The precise steering response of the pendulum axle technology developed by SCHEUERLE allows millimetre-exact positioning of the ship sections. In addition, the functional axle compensation automatically provides a uniform distribution of load on all wheels when travelling on uneven surfaces. The steering angle of +/- 165° and the selectable steering programs, such as regular, transverse, diagonal and circle, provide the vehicles with excellent manoeuvrability. The 104 t colossus is steered via a high-tech driver´s cab equipped with monitors.

In a spectacular night transportation undertaking, the 2 transporters were transferred from the SCHEUERLE plant in Pfedelbach to the heavy-load port in Heilbronn. However, this was not carried out using low-bed trailers what is usually the case. The transporters made the complete journey on their own axles, i.e. they were driven by SCHEUERLE specialists in the cabs 30 km along the motorway and main roads to their destination. After a 4.5-hour trip, the two shipyard transporters reached the designated heavy-load quay at the Heilbronn port facility where, the next morning, the vehicles were lifted onto a special pontoon designed to handle extremely heavy loads – this was accomplished using a Demag AC700 mobile crane supplied by the Wiesbauer company. From here, the journey continued along the Neckar river, then along the Rhine and Schelde up to Rotterdam. After being re-loaded onto a seagoing vessel, the almost one-month voyage to the final destination of Kaohsiung in Taiwan began via the North Sea and the Suez Canal in Egypt.

SHT transporters from SCHEUERLE have revolutionized the shipbuilding industry regarding the transportation not only of individual ship sections but also complete ships. Extreme loads of 1,000 t and more can be moved with only one vehicle. Through the combination of several vehicles, even loads of 15,000 t and more can be transported.

(setcorp)

[mappress]

Source: setcorp, May 19, 2011;