Since its startup in 2016, LiftWerx has gradually taken on projects with increasing complexity.  Recently, the company has undertaken the most logistically complex project ever performed in its history. The project required the exchange of two wind turbine gearboxes. Its sounds simple, doesn’t it?  Let Liftwerx assure you that it was not.

The first challenge was the fabrication of new equipment for the job. The job required the development of a new Senvion MM92 interface and roof-shifting kit. This was an endeavor that required more than a year of work by engineers and technicians at both LiftWerx and Eager.One. Additionally, the job was to be performed with a new GenHook™ crane system, which had been under development by LiftWerx and KenzFigee for nearly two years. The new cranes were shipped from the Netherlands to Canada in the second quarter of 2023, and subsequently commissioned at LiftWerx’s facilities in Cambridge.  The equipment was shipped as a trans-Atlantic voyage, by a combination of cargo ship, truck, and railway train.

At this point, another logistic adventure began! The jobsite was located near Fairbanks, Alaska, USA, in a remote location only 270 kilometres south of the Arctic Circle.  Mobilizing the equipment to the jobsite started with a journey by truck of 6,200 kilometres, comparable to the driving distance between Berlin, Germany, and Dubai, UAE.  After arrival in Alaska, all the equipment had to be transferred onto a railway train for final delivery to the jobsite, as the destination wind farm is in a remote mountainous location with no roads or fixed highway link.  The equipment was loaded to three railcars, and combined with two more railcars which were loaded with the new replacement gearboxes, which had also been shipped from a manufacturer in Germany.

After arrival at the jobsite, all equipment was unloaded from the train and delivered to the wind farm, where the wind turbine repairs were finally able to begin.  Since that time, a cosmopolitan LiftWerx team comprised of technicians and engineers from the USA, Canada, the UK and Poland have been doing a great job at getting the job done at this wind farm, despite violent weather and wind speeds of up to 125 km/h (80 mph).

This job is a great example of how great outcomes can result from the efforts of the Meemaken Group. To all employees at MeeMaken, LiftWerx, Eager.One, and KenzFigee who contributed to the ongoing success of this project, Liftwerx thanks you!