Brimmond’s New ‘Rent & Refurb’ Service Raises The Bar In Marine Crane Operations
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
In demanding marine environments, the wear of marine cranes is inevitable.
North-east Scotland based engineering specialists, Brimmond, have extensive experience in supporting the marine and aquaculture industries to extend the lifespan of their equipment via their refurbishment service. From the simplest of faults through to major overhauls, the firm has an impressive track-record in overhauling a wide range of equipment including marine cranes, A-frames, ROV winches, HPUs and control panels.
What’s perhaps less well-known, but experiencing growing demand, is their ‘Rent & Refurb’ crane service, which does exactly what it says on the tin!
Paul Dingwall, Brimmond’s Technical Sales Manager, explains: “We understand that downtime with equipment, particularly marine cranes, is unfeasible for many clients. This led us to launch our ‘Rent & Refurb’ service – we refurbish equipment to our high standards and provide a hire crane during the repair. Feedback from clients has been extremely positive.”
The numbers stack up
For example, a typical complete refurbishment (back to bare steel) of a 170 Tonne Meter Crane:
Presents around a 30-50% saving over the cost of a new crane.
Delivery time is approximately 50% that of a new factory order crane.
Presents around 10,000kg – 20,000kg saving on CO₂ emissions.
‘Rent & Refurb’ in practice
Brimmond recently delivered a successful solution for a world-leading aquaculture client facing declining performance in their older workboat Heila HLRM170-4S marine crane. With the need to maintain uninterrupted vessel lifting operations and avoid costly downtime, the client turned to Brimmond for an effective strategy to extend the crane’s lifespan, bypassing the need for a replacement and minimising operational delays.
Brimmond’s ‘Rent & Refurb’ service provided the ideal solution by offering a rental crane with identical mounting points to the client’s original unit. The client crane was swiftly removed, and the hire crane installed within a day, ensuring a smooth transition while the original crane was refurbished. With this temporary solution, the client’s lifting operations continued without interruption, maintaining full capacity throughout the process.
Inspection and Assessment
Brimmond’s technicians dismantled the crane to inspect its mechanical, hydraulic, and structural components, producing a report on the necessary work. The crane didn’t require line boring, a service Brimmond offers in-house for worn or misaligned pin housings.
Structural integrity and component overhaul
The crane’s main boom, second boom, extension sections and king post were stripped, degreased, shot-blasted, and tested with Non-Destructive Testing (NDT). The hydraulic and electrical systems were overhauled, with worn parts replaced. External electrical components and the new local control bank were relocated to a stainless-steel enclosure for better protection.
Reassembly and final testing
After the components were shot-blasted and painted to NORSOK standards, the crane was fully reassembled with new hoses, valves, pins, and bushings.
It then successfully passed a comprehensive Factory Acceptance Test (FAT) on Brimmond’s test bay, meeting all performance standards, with the client present to witness the process.
The result: a seamless return to service
The crane was re-installed on the vessel, and after thorough functional and load testing, it was returned to service - fully operational with an extended service life, ensuring enhanced reliability and performance.
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