Indian engineering and manufacturing giant Larsen & Toubro is using two Potain MD 1100 special application cranes at its new shipbuilding facility near Chennai. The customized cranes were built to L&T’s specifications and designed by Manitowoc’s special application cranes team. They have capacities of 32 t and 40 t.
The Kattapalli Shipyard, located near Ennore Port, is the second facility for L&T’s shipbuilding division. It is designed to handle both new build work and ship repair. Production at the yard is designed around the flow of the shipbuilding process, from the plate preparation shop to the plate forming shop, panel preparation shop, assembly shops, and finally, blasting and painting shops. When work is complete, vessels are docked, undocked and launched at the shipyard’s special Shiplift facility. The two Potain MD 1100s are installed on the jetty and are used to handle loads for both ship repair and construction.
P.R. Prabhu, executive vice president for shipbuilding at L&T, said when specifying the requirements of the cranes at the yard, the company was impressed with Manitowoc’s ability to meet all of its needs.
“We had unique requirements for these cranes, in terms of capacity and size of the footprint,” Prabhu explained. “We were able to tell Manitowoc exactly what we were looking for, and our unique requirements were met with two unique cranes.”
The Potain MD 1100 is a modular product and available in different capacity classes, depending on customer needs. The 40 t capacity MD 1100 is the first crane of its size in India to be mounted on 12 m x 10 m of chassis. It is also the first MD 1100 in India outfitted with a 70 m jib. Another unique point to the two MD 1100 cranes in India is that they are the first two erected in the country without climbing cages for the masts – working heights are fixed at 47.2 m and 46.2 m.
Arvind Kaushik Sr., deputy general manager of L&T’s shipbuilding division, said that despite the specialized design of the cranes, erecting them at the shipyard was smooth.
“The erection plan for these cranes was extremely well thought out,” said Kaushik. “In general, getting the crane ready was surprisingly easy, almost a kind of ‘plug and play’ installation.”
Thangaraj Baskar Sr., manager of L&T shipbuilding, was similarly impressed with how easy it was to install the crane.
“Each step ran easily, and every component came with detailed instructions that made for a smooth and hassle-free erection,” said Baskar. “The dedication shown by the engineers on Manitowoc’s special application crane team made all the difference.”