When the construction and energy sectors need to create larger, heavier products and structures, what do they do? When there are time restraints, as well as the demand for economical solutions to move and build items, not to mention the ever-increasing commitment to keep the carbon footprint as low as possible, how do they go about this?
Well, one way is to use bigger, stronger cranes to facilitate. You might wonder how this helps the carbon footprint, right? Surely bigger, more powerful cranes use more energy. This might be true in some cases. But there are advantages. I’m going to introduce the SGC-250, aka ‘Big Carl’ to help me explain.
Launched in November 2018 by Belgian transport giants, Sarens, Big Carl, their biggest ring crane to date, burst onto the scene at a pivotal time, when innovation was key in the energy sector, as well as refineries, maritime projects, and more.
Hinkley Point C
When we talk amount the energy sector, the UK’s largest civil engineering project, Hinkley Point C nuclear power station in Somerset, needed lifting machinery that was going to cope with its mammoth tasks, such as helping to instal three 47m wide steel rings that form a nuclear reactor. The second of these rings, combined with the crane’s lifting accessories, put a whopping 544 tonnes on the crane’s scales.
This was one of many giant lifts, albeit, a portion of the crane’s 5000-tonne lifting capacity, but an important and historical moment, nonetheless.
Up until 2024, Big Carl was the biggest and strongest land based construction crane, until Mammoet’s SK6000 arrived. But that doesn’t mean it’s now any less revered. Far from it. Because of the sheer size and how renowned it is at the Hinkley Point site, they refer to it as ‘he’.
So, what makes Big Carl able to do these huge lifts all around this site that’s the size of a small town, hosting restaurants, a gym, up to 100 cranes, a bar, and accommodation for some if the 12000-20000 staff? The answer is a combination of lifting capacity, radius coverage, height, and mobility.
Lifting capacity
Being able to lift 5000-tonnes, with a 250,000Tm maximum load moment, large items can be brought to site or assembled on the ground, then moved into place in one piece, rather doing several lifts to the items’ final location to build them. What’s the benefits of this?
Logistics – More item pieces mean more lorries to transport them, which uses more energy, creates more pollution, and congestion. Also, storing all the pieces on site takes up space and cause potential hazards.
Safety – Every lift is a risk, so the fewer smaller lifts there are, the less chance there is of an incident.
Easier installation – Some areas of site are not easily accessible. Structures could be in the way, or the location could be very high, meaning large cherry pickers are needed for the workers to do the install. This is why building large units on the ground or in a factory prior to installation is far easier than piecing the parts together at the awkward locations.
Radius coverage
In some cases, having one crane that can cover a large area is more beneficial than using several cranes.
Big Carl has a 160m boom that utilises a jib extension to increase the reach to 275m radius. That’s roughly four rugby pitches end to end. And at 100m radius, the crane can lift 2000-tonnes, which makes little difference between Big Carl and the aforementioned SK6000
Height
Big Carl’s jib can work to a 250m maximum height, which makes the crane tower above the many tower cranes at Hinkley point C. In fact, he is 2.6 times taller than Big Ben. This, combined with the radius reach, allows the crane to get to almost impossible places. This takes great skill and communication from the lifting team, comprising the crane operator, slinger/signaller, crane supervisors, and appointed person.
Mobility
Big Carl utilises over 6km of rail at Hinkley Point C, allowing him to move to different areas of the site. This is a first for a ring crane. There are two sets of wheels. One for slewing and one for travelling.
Being a ring crane, the hub of the lifting gets done on three lifting circles (360° ring tracks), where, because of his sheer size, the crane takes over 30 minutes to do a full revolution on his 48.5m turning circle.
Here is a short video of him slewing while attached to a giant lifting accessory, on the way to picking up a ring.
It can take up to nine hours to move between each of these lifting areas, so they often use SPMT (self-propelled modular transporter) trailers to move loads around the site.
At present, Big Carl is the only ring crane that can move to different areas of site while fully rigged. However, because of the time this takes, the crane is only used for gigantic lifts.
More proof of the size is that the crane was transported to site on 250 lorries. You might think that this counteracts the point of less logistical and environmental issues, but bear in mind that, to date, Big Carl has been at this site for six years, and has done over 300 lifts during this period, which has favoured time and the carbon footprint.
History
Sarens isn’t a typical crane manufacturer. The family business, with approximately 4500 staff, is actually a large transport company who have specialised in building a series of giant cranes, namely, the SGC series, all built in-house. And Big Carl is the third of four generations. SGC stands for Sarens Giant Crane.
First came the SGC-120, built in 2011, named Big Benny, after the late Benny Sarens, who was the company’s technical director. This crane had a 3200-tonne lifting capacity and a 120,000Tm load moment.
Then in 2017, they launched the SGC-140, aka Big Benny XL, again with a 3200-tonne lifting capacity, but this time, with a 140,000-tonne load moment.
Then, along came the record-breaking Big Carl. And after that, developed during Covid19 was the SGC-90, nicknamed Little Celeste, an electric crane that can generate its own power, to lift a maximum of 1650 tonnes, with a load moment of 99,000Tm.
Big Carl was affectionately named after the father of the family business, Carl Sarens, their director of global operations and technical solutions, also the great grandson of the company founder, Frans Sarens, who began his journey doing forestry work during the 1930s and 40s.
Aside from Big Carl, this crane series has seemed to fly under the radar, as Sarens was happy to give their competitor, Mammoet, the spotlight. But it turns out they have something up their sleeve. While speaking to a Sarens representative during research for this article, they teased that they have something else in the pipeline.
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