A 260 m floating dock with a weight of 18,000 tons has begun its journey from South Korea to Egypt with help from Cometto SPMTs
The huge floating dock is capable of lifting up to 35,000 tons. SangSangIn Ship Machinery signed a contract with Suez Canal Authority of Egypt in November 2021 to build this floating dock and manufacturing began in May 2022.
The starting point for the vessel was the SangSangIn Industry GwangYang port where the floating dock had to be moved 300 m out of the installation location and loaded onto a barge ship. Besides the impressive length and weight of the freight, the steel colossus has a width of 62 m and a height about 22.5 m.
As a contractor, the competence of three South Korean heavy load specialists Anjeon, DaeMyung and Global came together. “The three companies have sent their SPMT fleets to the site to master the challenge. A total of 380 modular axle lines of Cometto MSPE has been assembled, composed by sixty-two 6-axle units two 4-axle units,” explained Alberto Di Stefano, sales manager at Cometto.
The complete system was driven by 12 Power Pack Units with 335 kW each.
“The high payload capacity and the reliable handling of the Cometto modules are decisive advantages for this outstanding job,” added Di Stefano. “Such projects are realisable thanks to the payload capacity of the Cometto MSPE which reaches a value of up to 70 tons per axle line – the highest amount on the market. Additionally, the patented Cometto Dual-Link suspension offers an optimised force repartition in the suspension structure. The axle geometry gives the highest possible precision during the load positioning.”
All the 380 SPMT axle lines were disposed in twelve independent convoys supporting four areas under each corner of the floating dock and worked together in an open compound. The convoy connection between the Cometto SPMTs was kicked off as soon as the Cometto engineers accompanied by experts from Bokook, the Cometto partner in South Korea, arrived at the port job site.
The Cometto SPMTs in convoy were set to kick off the load-out process. First the position of the supports had to be adjusted a little, then the load-out project was successfully completed.
