The initiative to replace a crane with a mobile gantry for the P-76 platform won the InovaInfra award from the Brazilian magazine O Empreiteiro.

Techint E&C has been awarded the Inovainfra prize for the first time, a mark of recognition bestowed by the Brazilian magazine O Empreiteiro, for the project entitled "Lifting cargo over the sea: replacement of a crane on a raft by a mobile gantry", which was used for the P-76 project in Pontal do Paraná, in 2018.

The initiative was the brainchild of construction engineer Wilson Rosa who came up with the innovation in response to tackling the challenge of transporting approximately 480 tons of parts and equipment in a single module to the top deck of a platform vessel.

The initial option was to ferry everything from the dock to a support raft, then hoist the module parts and equipment with a crane on the raft itself up to a buttress on the platform, and from there, use manual cranes to maneuver them into place at their final assembly location on the platform. The activity was expensive and posed a number of security risks.

Given the complexity involved in the maneuvers, Wilson came up with an alternative solution. “I saw that there was already a structure on the Riser Balcony (the platform jutting out over the sea where the pipes connect to the risers bringing up the oil from the seabed), which had enough of a load capacity to support the elevators. So I worked on this piece to develop a mobile gantry crane capable of lifting the valves and the parts of the pipeline directly from the raft to the final assembly position on the ship,” says Wilson, who is currently working on the project for the new Jaguatirica II thermoelectric plant.

This solution meant that all overlapping activities could be directly eliminated. "All the gantry design and special manufacture tasks were carried out internally in the shipyard, taking into account the structure where it would sit, and the height of the elevators, which are about 26 m but can vary depending on the draft," he explains.

RESULTS ON THREE FRONTS

Replacing the raft crane (traditional method) by a mobile gantry cut costs and brought improvements in terms of productivity and safety. The cost of the mobile gantry was equivalent to a quarter of the estimated cost of the ferry, representing savings of 75%. In terms of productivity, the proposal reduced the operating time from 75 days to 50, not counting the various activities that would have to be interrupted to carry out cargo movements. As for safety, the activity reduced the risk exposure of some 800 employees during the planned 75 days of the operation, in addition to the many risks of material and environmental damage, as the activity is carried out at sea.

Wilson Rosa's initiative was registered with the Techint E&C Innovation Program, where it gained visibility and is set to be applied to other company projects around the world. "At the company, we encourage our people to innovate and contribute their proposals to our Corporate Ideas Registration Program,” says Renato Andrade, Manager of Quality, Environment, Health and Safety, and Innovation at Techint E&C Brasil.

The InovaInfra award was designed to encourage and publicize innovation projects related to infrastructure and engineering works. All the projects were evaluated by an independent jury made up of representatives from Engineering and Infrastructure entities. The projects which received awards will be presented in the O Empreiteiro magazine, in a special edition about the Second InovaInfra 2021 Prize, while the leading innovations were showcased at an online event held on April 7, 2021 in São Paulo.