Giant castings

Giant castings

The voestalpine Foundry Group has made the impossible possible and produced four huge hinges, each weighing 135 tons, for ship cranes. These are the largest and most complex components the foundry has ever cast. 

The voestalpine Foundry Group has made a name for itself with highly complex tailor-made castings. However, this successful order outshines any of our previous projects.

The gigantic castings measure 7 x 6 x 5 meters, and four of them were ordered by a subsea construction company named Allseas. The hinges are called hang-off frames (HOFs) and will be used in two cranes on a huge cargo ship that will piggyback the lower part of heavy oil rigs out to sea. This saves a lot of time and money in the assembly and dismantling of oil platforms. The four HOFs are integral elements of the two cranes, and the material and processing requirements are extremely stringent.