Flange Laying Ceremony for Offshore Crane
Liebherr officially celebrates the production start of the HLC, Liebherr’s biggest offshore crane. In the presence of representatives from Deme Cosco, the festivities took place on 5 April at the company’s production site.
The manufacture of Liebherr’s first HLC is a revolutionary project that is now ready to enter its final phase –production. The so-called flange laying ceremony marked the beginning of this milestone. As the name suggests, a huge flange with a diameter of more than 15m was set by representatives from involved parties. Customer Deme and its subsidiary GeoSea from Belgium, as well as the shipyard owner Cosco from China, travelled to Rostock to be present for the start of the initial activities. It is customary in the shipping industry to place a coin underneath the keel for good luck. As Liebherr greatly values such traditions, this custom was adopted and, before the last section of the flange was positioned during the ceremony, both a Chinese and a Belgian coin were placed underneath.
“Although it is superstition, we thought it might be a suitable and charming idea to adopt this tradition as part of the flange laying ceremony. Doing something special emphasises the meaning of the project and it therefore appeared suitable,” explains Mr Daniel Poll, Sales Director Ship and Offshore Cranes. Important milestones lie ahead for the forthcoming months. Several thousands of tonnes of steel will be formed, welded, and assembled into a product that is unique for Liebherr. Both the size of the crane and the size of the individual components and main parts are exciting aspects. The boom is 160m long, and the crane has a height of 90m. When assembled on a huge pedestal, the crane has a lifting height of up to 180m – almost twice as high as the world-famous Statue of Liberty. With a lifting capacity of 5,000t and with an outreach of over 30m, the HLC 295000 could lift nine fully loaded A380 airplanes in one single go.