Tetrahedron has patented a new crane for lifting offshore wind turbine generators at a lower cost than conventional hardware. The Tetrahedron crane is suitable to lift the next generation of offshore wind turbine generators with capacities of 10-20 MW each. Those cranes reach heights up to 250 m.
Compared to the existing cranes, the Tetrahedron crane can simply lift high, while installed on a compact jack-up-vessel. To achieve this the Dutch company uses modern synthetic materials and apply them in parts with major impact to outperform conventional steel.
For a luffing boom crane that lifts a 1000 t wind turbine component at 200 m above the waterline, in conventional cranes, half of the crane capacity gets lost to lift its own weight. As the Tetrahedron is significant lighter, and due to its shape approximately 25% more crane capacity can be used for actually lifting the load. This advantage can be used to upgrade the lifting capacity at height on an existing jack-up-vessel or boost the capacity on a newbuilt jack-up-vessel.