Wednesday, October 6th, 2010
Pivot Fenders Installed and Ready at Iron Ore Berth
In July an article looked at QuayQuip’s latest Pivot Fender project. As its fender systems enter service we will examine the project in more detail and share images of the installation process.
The brief
The $1.75 million order, built and installed in China, is designed to serve iron ore barges of 16,000dwt. Just under 28 million tonnes per year of processed ore will pass through the facility.
The berth posed formidable challenges: the approach height range exceeds 13m, and the structure will be subject to upward forces from wave action combined with resonance and overturning moments.
The design
QuayQuip decided to move beyond old-school design approaches. Conventional systems would have been unstable, maintenance-prone. They would also need bulky supporting structures. The design team instead combined an innovative fender panel design with hinge technology, already proved durable by the dredging industry. Designers used the latest CAD software and FEM techniques to model the lightest possible fender systems and supporting structure, all to a finer precision than would have been possible even a few years ago.
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