Marine Transport of 50m long blades / wings of wind power generators 2

[enomoti]

I have an optimization problem..
Our clients wants to transport blades that come in packs of 18 blades
Package 1: 48.954 x 4395 x 3000 mm
Package 2: 56848 x 4395 x 3000 mm.
Available ships enable a max. lenght of 93-95 mts and 10 mts in height.
We want to change the packing in order to decrease transport costs.
Ideas?

 

[racookpe1978]

Are you saying you have two rectangular packages holding 18x blades (each long but thing at one end, round at the other end), and you need to repack the total of 36 in a single taller rectangle holding 36 blades?

 

[Jarod997]

As I understand it, the blades are currently packaged in groups of two, and there are nine packages which make up a total ship-set of 18 blades. The blade type 1 "container" is 48.954 meters by 4.395 meters by 3.0 meters. The blade type 2 "container" is 56.848 meters by 4.395 meters by 3.0 meters. These are not real containers as the blade pairs are only "packaged" or held together by a couple lifting frames along the length of the blades on to which a crane can attach. I believe the OP is saying the total available length on the ship deck is 93 to 95 meters and 10 meters in height - though when I first saw "mts" I was thinking "metric tonnes".

The blades are single piece and can not be "deconstructed" in any practical sense for shipping.

The goal here is to reduce the shipping costs in total by reducing the container size (because freight is often calculated by volume-weight). Because they can't change the weight, they are trying to reduce the volume. If the volume is reduced enough it's possible they may be able to fit another "strip" of blades on the ship (although from what I've seen this is not likely).

I hope this helps.

 

[waross]

"Available ships enable a max. lenght of 93-95 mts and 10 mts in height."
Well you are less than 93 meters long and less then 10 meters in height. Unless you give us some idea of what the shipping charges are based on it is hard to understand your question.

Bill
--------------------
"Why not the best?"
Jimmy Carter

 

[Jarod997]

Shipping charges are usually based on volume-weight, regardless of how your package fits in the transporting vehicle. If you can reduce your volume or your weight, you reduce your cost. The volume is usually calculated by the minimum bounding box of your product - whether that's part of the product itself or part of a box, frame, etc.

 

[MikeHalloran]

The first thing that comes to mind, and it's not clear that you haven't already done this, is to arrange the blade pairs in alternating directions within the lifting frames such that each end of the 'package' contains a blade root and a blade tip, so the package cross section doesn't have to be a lot bigger than one blade root.

Blade twist may limit how tightly you can pack the blades that way. Are the blades flexible enough to allow shipment in a de-twisted state, or a slightly bent state, or both?

... deferring the question of how one actually gets the deformed blades into the lifting frame. ... perhaps the blades could be loaded with the frame in some partially unfolded state, and then the frame could be winched tighter around the blades and pinned?




Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA