MacGregor Launches First Fibre-Rope Offshore Crane

MacGregor, part of Cargotec, has completed the construction of FibreTrac, the first fibre-rope offshore crane to enter the market.

Designed to comply with DNV GL regulations, the FibreTrac crane has a 150-tonne safe working load (SWL) capacity and features an advanced rope monitoring and management system that maximizes rope lifespan and provides clear lift line status information for the operator at all times.

“The project to build, certify and validate the MacGregor FibreTrac crane is the result of our confidence in its potential,” said Høye Høyesen, vice president, Advanced Offshore Solutions, MacGregor. “We strongly believe in the advantages that it will deliver to our customers.

“FibreTrac uses existing, proven technologies combined in a new application that offers deep-water load handling operators a simple pathway to some of the most significant cost-saving advantages seen in decades.”

FibreTrac is able to exploit its full lifting capacity because fibre-rope weighs virtually nothing in water, so no additional load is experienced by the crane, regardless of the length of rope used during load handling operations, the company explained.

“In practical terms, this means that a smaller crane and vessel can be used for more assignments, and owners are able to bid on a wider range of contracts,” Høyesen added. “The ability to use smaller vessels for deep-water projects will also drive down the cost of these operations and give our customers a stronger competitive edge.”