Page 41: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (December 2000)

Marine Innovations

New Crane Set To Revolutionize Salvage Work

Marine and salvage company Titan Maritime plans to debut the Bj"ijfT~ world's first disassembling/portable shearleg crane. The Heavy B fit

Lift Salvage tool is comprised of two portable 1,000 metric ton • fi| capacity shearleg cranes and corresponding 1,000 metric ton deck H H pK tackle. Working in tandem, the crane pair, when combined with H • • H

Titan's linear chain pullers, can lift up to 4,000 metric tons - a feat I IJ reportedly never before accomplished in this application. Shearleg J I cranes of many different magnitudes and sizes are currently used in • \ • HV^^H different locations worldwide. AH of these cranes were purpose I IM built as permanent structures on floating barges. Titan's concept is • \HB1S unique because it is portable and not logistically limited by the location of the barge, or its registered flag. The Heavy Lift tool can be assembled on any available 300 x 900 ft. (91.4 x 27.4 m) barge, ^^^^^^Hh^Hf or individually put together on a 250 x 72 ft. (76.2 x 21.9 m) barge. Rendering of Titan Maritime's Heavy Lift Salvage Tool.

Each crane is designed to be taken apart and loaded into standard size intermodal shipping containers. Portions of the assembled cranes are similar in shape to that of shipping containers.

This was implemented to reduce the volume of crane components for shipping. Once disassembled and containerized, the Lift Tool can be shipped and reassembled anywhere in the world. But if an extreme circumstance should occur, the units can be air lifted for quick deployment. Titan's Heavy Lift Salvage Tool is the brainstorm of David Parrot, the com- pany's founder and president. "Titan's success has been built on our ability to remain completely portable. All our equip- ment is highly portable, allowing Titan to rapidly respond to maritime casualties anywhere around the globe," Parrot said.

While a significant portion of existing shearlegs have been designed in Holland and Germany, Titan opted to wage a competition between firms based in both countries. Each company was told to submit their best "portable" shearleg con- cept - Overdick and Partners of Hamburg, Germany received the honor. The builders of the shearlegs will be Malaysian- based shipbuilding and repair company, Muhibbah Marine Engineering, who will construct the Tool to Germanischer

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WR-21 Enters Critical Phase

Northrop Grumman and Rolls-Royce have signed an agreement with DCN to market and pro- duce the WR-21 marine gas turbine, effectively establishing a world class team for the inter- cooled and recuperated WR-21. The WR-21 suc- cessfully completed the development phase of the

U.S. Navy, Royal Navy and French Navy funded full-scale development program in February 2000.

The engine accumulated approximately 2,100 fired test hours, including a 500 hour endurance test in Pyestock, England in 1998 and a 500-hour endurance test at the U.S. Navy's test facility in

Philadelphia in late 1999. The final phase of the program has started, with DCN's facility perform- ing the 3,000-hour endurance qualification. Upon completion in early 2002 and subsequent shock tests, the engine will be qualified for service under standards set by the U.S. Navy and will meet or exceed standards set by other Navies around the world. The WR-21's advanced cycle recovers energy from the engine's exhaust gas to increase fuel efficiency across the operating range. The intercooled and recuperated WR-21 has already demonstrated more than 25 percent annual fuel savings in mechanical drive configura- tions compared with existing simple cycle gas turbines and is on track to reach more than 27 percent in its final production configuration," said

Jim Hupton, vp of Northrop Grumman Marine.

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