RHC Lifting News

Battersea Power Station Bandstand Box Project

Image credit: John Sturrock

RHC Lifting Limited has completed a once-in-a-lifetime project at Battersea Power Station, London. The project entailed decommissioning and refurbishing three original Turbine Hall Cranes.

Inside the two vast Turbine Halls are three original latticework double girder overhead gantry cranes which have been stood dormmate since the power station was decommissioned in the 1980s.

The main focus of this project has been the 150t crane in Turbine Hall B, built by Sir William Arrol & Co. of Glasgow in 1938. Once the crane was moved into its final position, RHC Lifting moved the 150t hoist to the cross travel end stops, decommissioned and cleaned the crane and hoist.

RHC Lifting then installed a new 50t SWF Krantechnik hoist unit onto the 150t lattice work crane structure. The inverter-controlled hoist unit features double drum reeving, 4 individual ropes, drum Overspeed brakes, tandem lifting, anti-sway and an encoder system.

Onto the new hoists, RHC Lifting has designed, manufactured and installed a special bandstand box. Measuring 5.6m x 5.6m and is 3.7m high. The bandstand box hangs above the heads of the shoppers whilst visiting the newly refurbished shopping mall. Three sides of the boxes are glazed with highly unique powerglass®.

This is the first project in the UK using powerglass®. The powerglass® has 95% transparency until powered up, when 33,264 LEDs are illuminated to create three 5.5mx2.9m LED screens, which can be combined to create one large display with content wrapped around the perimeter of the bandstand box. The powerglass® has LEDs inset between two glass panels and are supplied with electrical power via nearly invisible circuits on the inner glass surface.

The powerglass® and space inside the bandstand box can be used as an exclusive event space and advertising medium which has endless opportunities. In combination with the new hoist, the bandstand box can be programmed autonomously to move across the width of the Turbine Hall and raise or lower, giving the illusion of the bandstand box floating.

The bandstand box can dock and is accessed via an RHC-designed, manufactured and installed bridge on level 2 of the Turbine Hall. When the shopping mall is closed to the public the bandstand box can be lowered to the Shopping Mall floor for maintenance or to be loaded with larger items. The operator can take manual control of the hoist and bandstand box and control their movements via an AUTEC CURVE AJQ joystick transmitter.

Elsewhere in Turbine Hall B, a 20t Babcock & Wilcox Limited crane (with a 5t Axillary hoist) was parked, decommissioned and cleaned similar to the crane in Turbine Hall A. The 20t crane now remains as an industrial relic in the roof of the newly opened shopping mall.

Turbine Hall A houses a 150t crane with a 15t axillary, manufactured by Clyde Crane and Engineering in the early 1930s. RHC Lifting completed a full survey and 3D modelled the crane before fully decommissioning and locking off the hook blocks, crane cross & long travel movements, before removing any remaining oil in the gearboxes and cleaning off dirt and debris which has built up over the last 90 years. Further works included removing any loose paint off the steelwork and replacing the wooden walkways.

With the crane parked in its final position, a footbridge spanning the turbine hall has been installed, to the underside of the crane, creating an impressive walkway across the Turbine Hall A to the art deco Turbine Hall A control room. 

For any enquiries on other services RHC Lifting provides contact us at sales@rhclifting.com