The Danish transport company, Brande Maskintransport, recently transported the prototype of the new Siemens SWT-6.0-120 nacelle using heavy goods vehicles from the French manufacturer NICOLAS Industrie.
During the 138 km journey from Brande to the final destination of Høvsøre, the 58-m long convoy had to overcome numerous obstacles.
Siemens Energy has erected the first prototype of its new generation of offshore wind turbine plants close to the town of Høvsøre in Denmark and started test phase operations. The new SWT-6.0-120 wind turbines generate up to six megawatts of power and have a rotor diameter of 120 metres. For transporting the oversize Siemens nacelle, the Danish transport specialist Brande Maskintransport used 22 NICOLAS MHD axle lines which were borrowed from its Norwegian partners Statnett Transport and AS Maskintransport for this assignment. Although Brande Maskintransport itself has 200 MDEL NICOLAS platform vehicle axle lines, the particular circumstances of this transportation task required the use of a specific kind of technology.
Due to three bridges which had to be negotiated, the road axle load of 14 tonnes could not be exceeded. These circumstances along with the width of the cargo facilitated the use of platform vehicles which had a stronger frame construction and higher bending moment. The NICOLAS MHD has an extremely robust construction and an overall lift height of 650 mm. With a 36 t technical axle load, the MHD platform vehicle has been designed for the safe transportation of very heavy loads and, through the robust frame, provides sufficient reserves even when carrying extreme loads. The steering angle of 55 degrees was particularly useful when negotiating the numerous traffic islands on route and guaranteed a high level of manoeuvrability in tight spaces when driving through small towns and villages.
The combination was pulled and pushed by means of two Mercedes Actros truck tractors equipped with turbo coupling. With an average speed of 8 kilometres per hour, the 58 m long and 8 m high convoy completed the 138 km route in 17 hours.
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Source: nicolas, September 02, 2011