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A Gamechanger for The Maritime Industry

    Palfinger, the world's leading producer and provider of innovative crane and lifting solutions, just announced a long-term joint development agreement with Norwegian company Optilift to co-develop and deliver innovative solutions to the maritime industry.

    Palfinger, the world’s leading producer and provider of innovative crane and lifting solutions, just announced a long-term joint development agreement with Norwegian company Optilift to co-develop and deliver innovative solutions to the maritime industry.

    Optilift has signed a contract with PALFINGER and Aker BP to jointly develop and deliver the world´s first autonomous offshore cranes. Delivery for the first cranes is to Aker BP platforms Yggdrasil and Valhall within the next few years. Aker BP plans to remotely operate five of the seven cranes from an onshore control room in Stavanger.

    This agreement is an important part of our strategy, enabled through new technology, an innovative approach, and skilled people.

    Georg Vidnes, SVP Operations at Aker BP

    Global megatrends: Sustainability, demographic change, and digitalization constantly present new challenges to Palfinger and are highly applicable based on their 2030 strategy. The agreement with Optilift creates synergies to generate further market-leading solutions. Furthermore, the opportunity to explore joint business cases concerning PALFINGER’s serially produced units on land-based applications represents significant scaling of the technology.

    Motion Reporter automatically measures the vessel’s motions, and the CCU Tracker identifies which containers to lift and where they are placed.
    Illustration by Optilift

    Palfingers 2030 strategic plan has two pillars; “Go for Solutions” and “Go Digital.” The basis of the “Go Digital” strategic pillar is to work and develop intelligent solutions to make their customers’ daily operations more efficient and safer.  

    When operational, the cranes will pave the way for unmanned offshore platforms and contribute to improved safety, reduced costs, and lower CO2 emissions.

    Andreas Klauser, CEO of PALFINGER

    Under the umbrella of this strategic partnership, PALFINGER and Optilift will collaborate to co-develop and integrate Optilift’s advanced technology into the control systems of offshore cranes. This collaboration will continue through the technology qualification process until the product is market-ready, coinciding with the commencement of production at Aker BP installations in 2027. 

    THE FUTURE OF OFFSHORE OPERATIONS IS REMOTE-CONTROLLED

    According to Palfinger, remote-controlled offshore operations are the future, and Optilift’s solutions will be a crucial supplement to the technology roadmap of all PALFINGER MARINE products. Optilift offers a comprehensive suite of digitalized solutions to improve safety and efficiency related to on- and offshore lifting and cargo handling.

    Together with our partners, we are moving forward to make the technology market-ready.

    Torbjørn Engedal, CEO at Optilift

    SVP of Operations, Georg Vidnes, explains that one of the main drivers for remote-controlled and autonomous cranes is their ability to transport cargo from supply vessels to offshore platforms entirely without any human intervention, even in rough weather conditions, with minimal need for maintenance. Our ambition is that equipment can be brought onto an offshore installation by autonomously operated crane systems so that equipment stands ready when personnel arrives at an unmanned or normally unmanned installation,” says Georg Vidnes, SVP of Operations at Aker BP. 

    -Through the cooperation with PALFINGER and Optilift, we are changing how we transport equipment to our offshore installations. The ability to remotely control cranes from shore is a first step, followed by innovations to load and offload equipment without manual intervention, thus reducing the risk to personnel from equipment handling, says Georg Vidnes.

    Using the Optilift deck planner, cargo locations are identified, and the lifting sequence is planned from the onshore control room.
    Illustration by Optilift

    “When operational, the innovation will not only increase safety and reduce costs and CO2 emissions for Aker BP but will also be made available to the entire global offshore marine and energy industry. Aker BP is a frontrunner that pushes not only the industries but also the suppliers to innovate. By joining forces with PALFINGER and their innovative solutions and open way of working, we will, together with Aker BP, take the lifting industry to the next level.” concludes Torbjørn Engedal, CEO at Optilift

    Want to learn more? Contact Optilift.