Industrial Rigging A Wind Turbine

For those of us who work at R. Baker & Son, industrial rigging and demolition is a way of life. Imagine the surprise when, on a trip a few years ago to visit family, an R. Baker staff member found himself watching the assembly of a giant wind turbine just a stone’s throw from his uncle’s home in upstate New York. Family members had seen several large tractor trailers transporting enormous conical steel tower sections and fiberglass blades through town, so they decided to visit the nearby wind farm under construction at the top of a mountain. There they watched crews rig and place a tower section and spoke with the industrial rigging contractors charged with erecting the wind turbines. 

A 500-ton high-lift crawler crane and a 100-ton hydraulic crane were strategically positioned at the steel-reinforced concrete tower base. Riggers connected each end of tower section to each crane, and the section was lifted from the oversize tractor trailer, which had somehow negotiated its way over winding roads to the mountaintop. The smaller crane steadied the section as the high-lift crane rigged it into a vertical position.  The section was then carefully rigged onto numerous steel bolts the top of the two sections of tower already in place. The industrial rigging company foreman explained that the rigging of the 40-ton nacelle, the housing for the generator and other main components, would follow once the top tower section had been properly secured. The rotor, assembled onsite with its three 120-ft. blades, would then be rigged in one piece and connected to the nacelle.  Once completed, the wind farm would have a generating capacity of over one hundred megawatts. 

R. Baker & Son - All Industrial Services
1 Globe Court
Red Bank, NJ 07701
732-222-3553

http://www/rbaker.com