UK-based heavy transport specialist Allelys has transported a Yankee drying cylinder from Ellesmere port to Shotton Mill in Flintshire, where it was installed.
The Yankee dryer, measuring 8.9 m x 4.62 m x 5.72 m, was lifted from the vessel at Ellesmere port using Allelys’ LG 1550 crane and loaded onto a 12-axle flat top trailer. Once moved across the port, a 450-tonne capacity hydraulic gantry system was used to tranship the project cargo from the flat top trailer onto a 16-axle girder frame trailer.
Given the size of the Yankee dryer, a motorway closure meant that the journey from port to site was split into two legs. Allelys also had to remove street furniture, trim trees and lift telecom and overhead power lines to facilitate the trailer’s safe passage. Once at site, the same hydraulic gantry system was used to tranship the cargo out of the girder frame onto mats and stools for temporary storage.
“The Yankee dryer was required to be lifted through the roof of an existing building, and with minimal clearance around the opening, expert precision would be pivotal,” explained Mitchell Smith, commercial engineer at Allelys. “The height of the building, combined with the reach and radius required, meant that our AK912 mobile crane was the only crane within the fleet that could make the lift possible.”
The AK912 – which Allelys added to its UK fleet earlier this year – was configured with a boom length of 83 m and a radius of 46 m, allowing the Yankee dryer to be lifted through the opening in the roof and lowered into its final position.
“Witnessing the 146-tonne Yankee dryer cylinder being lifted into place with such precision was truly breathtaking,” said Ömer Baykir, tissue plant and investment manager at Shotton Mill.
HLPFI reported on the addition of the Gottwald AK912 pedestal crane – with a lifting capacity of 1,200 tonnes and a boom radius of 113 m – to the Allelys fleet in March. The following month it had already completed its first project – lifting two generators and two transformers from a vessel at the port of Sutton Bridge in the UK.
