Van Oord and Mammoet Enter into Agreement with Verton

Signing the partnership by Jacques Stoof of Mammoet (left), Trevor Bourne of Verton (middle) and Paul Verheul of Van Oord (right).

June 24, 2019 - Van Oord and Mammoet are joining forces in a partnership with the scale-up Verton to develop a new lifting method for installing wind turbine blades. The company was scouted via the maritime innovation platform PortXL. 

By sharing knowledge and expertise, international marine contractor Van Oord, heavy lifting and transport company Mammoet, and Australian tech company Verton are developing a way to shorten the installation cycle times and make it safer for operators. 

Verton has developed a remote rotating device that uses gyroscopic modules to rotate a suspended load. A new concept has been developed in which this unit is integrated into a lifting yoke for installing wind turbine blades.

“The system allows operators to rotate and install heavy loads without using tag lines. Not only is this safer for operators, but it also shortens the installation cycle times,” says Wouter de Wildt, mentor from Van Oord.

Both Van Oord and Mammoet have committed to the first of three phases of development. The first phase is the kick-off phase, having the technical assessment and requirements made up. Turbine supplier Vestas will be knowledge partner in this development. Vestas will provide the project partners with the technical information and expertise required for the development of the new product.

“We are pleased to collaborate with other organizations in the same field, so we can jointly develop new tools and equipment to help the world of renewable energy to work safer and more efficiently,” says Jacques Stoof, director market development and innovations, Mammoet. 

PortXL is a maritime and port accelerator platform. This was Van Oord’s fourth year of participation in the initiative, both as a founding partner and mentor. Mammoet entered as a partner and mentor in 2018.