EVO INGENUITY LIFTS 120-TON SKYLIGHTS OVER BUSY SHOPPING CENTRE A company that prides itself in 64 May 2017 P O W E R S Y S T E M S EN168 accomplishing challenging industrial and commercial heavy lifts safely and efficiently has demonstrated its ingenuity by positioning a huge, 120-ton skylight over a busy Westfield shopping centre. Mulherin Rigging and Cranes has deployed a new generation Enerpac EVO synchronous lifting system to pull the completed skylights into place over existing skylights, positioning them with minute care and safety at night while normal retail activities carried on below during the day, throughout the entire operation. Enerpac EVO technology – which replaces manual control of hydraulic heavy lifting and shifting with PLC control – is from an Enerpac Heavy Lifting Technology family used to lift, shift and position some of the most challenging structures on earth. These include mining dragline and comminution components, space vehicle launches, oil and gas platform construction, bulk handling equipment and bridge lifting and launching. Mulherin used the EVO system to minutely control a bank of four Enerpac RR3014 push-pull cylinders mounted in custom built-horizontal steel frames to pull each of the two skylights more than 90 metres, from where they were fabricated on the roof of the centre, to where they would be used to illuminate the interior of the Chermside Shopping Centre in Brisbane, Queensland. Positioned between the two prefabricated convex skylights on the roof of the centre, the EVO system pulled first one then the other skylight in precisely metered steps of about 300mm a time. The Enerpac cylinders – each with a 295kN push and 53kN pull capacity – gradually slid the skylights to the position where they would do their job. “Because of Mulherin’s careful planning and the precision EVO technology – which is accurate down to fractions of a millimeter – the job went exactly to plan,” says Enerpac territory manager, SE Queensland and Northern NSW, Sandy Whyman. “Mulherin brought great experience in major projects to this job. They have worked on some of the state’s biggest oil, gas, mining and commercial lifts and shifts, all of which require top technology and care. This experience and ingenuity in meeting challenges gave them a winning advantage before they started.” Mulherin Rigging and Cranes’ director Gratten Mulherin says the precision control of the EVO system was crucial to the project. “We needed a system that could stop at any point if a certain load was exceeded, because we were working with glass and could not afford to have any breakages. The EVO can have a pre-set setting that automatically stops if the load exceeds certain parameters, which The two domed 120-ton skylights in position after they had been drawn together from opposite ends of the roof by the Evo synchronous system controlling push-pull cylinders.
EN-May17-eMag
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