Combilift, the largest global manufacturer of multidirectional, articulated forklifts and straddle carriers, has announced its move into the offshore wind sector with the launch of a new product designed to meet the load handling demands of largescale offshore wind manufacturers.
As the green energy sector sees a surge in larger wind turbine components, including towers and blades, Combilift joined forces with industry leaders to engineer safe, stable, efficient, lifting and storage solutions across its supply chain.
The Combi-LC, designed at Combilift's headquarters and manufacturing plant in Ireland, in collaboration with Siemens Gamesa, allows for the movement of wind turbine blades and towers-some as long as 115 m and weighing in at around 70 tons, through production stages and on to storage locations-which can sometimes be as far as 5 km apart.
The concept of custom Load Carriers (patent pending design) is based on two fully customizable remote-control units with low-level chassis beds that can work in tandem master and slave operation, with dimensions and wheel configurations that vary according to load type and weight.
Siemens Gamesa, an offshore wind supplier, has become the first company to leverage the new technology by signing a multimillion order for a number of the bespoke Load Carriers, and Combilift is in active discussions with other offshore wind companies with similar demands.
Josh Moffett, Heavy Equipment Manager at Combilift, said, "We are thrilled to have launched this new product, the Combi-LC, and we hope it will act as a gateway for us to further progress within our venture into the wind energy sector. The scale of offshore wind projects around the world leads to a very unique set of challenges, one of which being the ability to transport the very large components that make up a wind turbine. We recognized this and used our expertise in load handling to develop a solution to support those in the industry. The product is specifically made to order and therefore can be uniquely customized to fit specific applications."
Additionally, Combilift launched two other new products: the Combi-AGT and Combi-Connect.
Already in operation at a number of steel service centers in the United States, Combilift's Autonomous Guided Truck (Combi-AGT), designed specifically for the automated handling of long loads, features dual-control capability, enabling manual operation when necessary.
The third product launched by Combilift is Combi-Connect. It is a telematic software product that provides customers with greater levels of insight into fleet management and utilization, providing real-time data on fleet performance, including location tracking, usage analytics and maintenance alerts.
Based on a subscription model, Combi-Connect offers fully transparent data analytics enabling not only dealers, but the customers themselves, to manage and make informed decisions.
For more information contact:
Combilift USA
303 Concord Street
Greensboro, NC 27406
877-266-2456
www.combilift.com