BREMERTON, Wash. –
A team of more than two dozen Puget Sound Naval Shipyard & Intermediate Maintenance Facility Crane Maintenance Team professionals completed a four-year effort to upgrade Crane 62 on Jan. 3.
Crane 62 is one of 10 portal cranes that can be seen regularly moving throughout the shipyard on rails similar to train tracks, carrying an assortment of heavy loads. They can pick a load at the head of a dock and take it out to a barge beside the pier, or they can carry it to another dry dock.
According to Matt Edlin, a crane electrical engineer with Code 711, Crane Engineering personnel from Code 710; Lifting and Handling Technical Division; Code 720, Lifting and Handling Inspection, Test, Quality Assurance, and Training Division; and Code 730, Crane Maintenance Division, comprised the majority of the Crane Maintenance Team that worked on Crane 62.
“The goal was to retrofit the obsolete electronics to allow the crane to last another 20 years,” said Edlin. “This project replaced all of the crane’s electronics with Code 710 designs. It also has a new diesel generator engine and a new main generator. Installation occurred in three phases, with the crane being re-certified and given back to production in between each phase.”
He said the motor drives used on these cranes were discontinued in the late 1990s, which made finding replacement hardware difficult. Also, getting modern laptops to communicate with the equipment was cumbersome. These considerations drove part of the upgrade requirements.
According to Matt Engel, general foreman, Code 730, portal cranes are powered by a diesel generator set that provides electricity to operate the crane’s functions. The upgraded drives and related components are used to control the motors, enabling smooth operability of functions.
Edlin said contracting teams have been used in the past to perform crane upgrades. However, the PSNS & IMF Crane Maintenance Team had the needed expertise to perform this upgrade. Their expertise helped save the command money.
“Portal cranes 80 and 82 underwent very similar upgrades that were designed and installed by contractors,” Edlin said. “The cost of that contractor upgrade exceeded the in-house upgrade that we just performed on 62. Also, we now know the current design that we came up with inside-and-out, instead of having to learn what someone else designed after the fact.”
He said the team executed the upgrade exceptionally well.
“This project was very large and complex compared to our usual maintenance workload, and accordingly, we ran into a lot of issues,” Edlin explained. “However, every problem that came up was professionally addressed and we all moved forward together. As we worked through installation, the design was revised based on issues that we encountered or feedback from the electricians. We are very proud of the crane that we certified.”
Crane 62’s “sister crane,” which is the only other Samsung portal crane at PSNS & IMF, is Crane 61. According to Edlin, it has completed two of the three upgrade phases, with the final phase scheduled to be installed in late 2025 or early 2026.
Edlin said the overall team performed well together to get the job done.
“The crane maintenance team willingly took on work that was far greater in scope and complexity than normal, and we stuck with it for years in order to complete it,” he said. “These upgrades were an inevitable fact due to obsolescence. Rather than kick the can any further down the road, we took action and the shipyard is better equipped today because of our efforts.”
Edlin also mentioned the efforts of three people he credits with helping ensure the project was a success.
“Jeff Herricht and Justin Ebrecht, both Code 730 electricians, along with Elijah Hayman, Code 721 crane inspector, went through this project with me from beginning to end,” Edlin said. “They worked hand-in-hand with the Code 710 engineers, providing valuable feedback and helping with parts ordering. They brought more solutions than problems back to the engineers, and never complained about the complexity of the more frustrating parts of the job.”
“Having willing tradesmen who have mastered their craft, plus the fact that they stuck with it for so long, really made the Crane 62 upgrade a success story.”
The PSNS & IMF Crane Maintenance Team also benefited from input and collaboration among the teams across the Naval Sea Systems Command enterprise.
“The 710 codes at the various shipyards share design efforts,” Edlin said. “I have visited Norfolk Naval Shipyard (Virginia) and Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard (Hawaii) for design and testing visits, and they have come here for similar efforts. A lot of the design ideas that ended up going into 62 were suggested by engineers from the other shipyards.”
“Also, Portsmouth Naval Shipyard (Maine) supplied us with Code 730 electricians last year who helped us with work on both Crane 78 and Crane 62. Lessons learned from the Crane 62 project are already feeding into similar upgrades for some of our bridge cranes.”