Huisman, the worldwide specialist in renewable offshore wind and geothermal energy, oil and gas, civil industries and entertainment markets, was chosen by Royal Boskalis Westminster N.V. (Boskalis) to deliver a 4,000mt Offshore Mast Crane (OMC) to be installed on their crane vessel Bokalift 2.

Huisman is celebrating its 90th anniversary as a leading designer and manufacturer of innovative and step changing technical solutions, to the world's leading companies in the renewables, oil & gas, civil and entertainment industries. The company was founded in 1929 by Mr. M.M. Huisman as a steel construction company. It has been family owned and operated by three generations of the Roodenburg family since 1980. During the last 90 years, Huisman has delivered significant breakthroughs to global industries. The start of the anniversary year coincides with an impressive milestone: reaching a combined total of 150.000mt lifting capacity. This remarkable number is an add up of the capacity of all cranes built by Huisman during the last 90 years, of which the very first crane is still in service.

We are pleased to announce that Huisman has signed a contract with Sirius Well Manufacturing Services (SWMS) for the delivery of a HM100 land drilling rig. The delivery consists of a fully operational rig including mud system and power generation. This mobile trailerised rig will be used to drill for coal bed methane that is subsequently converted to Liquified Natural Gas for exports in Australia, starting Q2 2020.

Offshore driller Noble Corporation and Huisman, successfully concluded the final tests of a newly designed automatic tripping system (autotripping) onboard ‘Noble Globetrotter II’ drillship. The new Huisman automatic tripping system further improves the efficiency and safety of the drilling process onboard. During the tests, the system’s performance was proven by tripping 30,000ft of drill pipe. Even in sea conditions with wave heights up to 6 meters, the system proved reliable.

Huisman has been awarded a contract for the design, engineering, construction and delivery of the main crane on Jan De Nul’s newest offshore wind turbine installation vessel ‘Voltaire’. The crane will be unique in its size, capacity and novel features to allow efficient installation of the next generation offshore wind turbines. The vessel will be built by COSCO Shipping Heavy Industry in China and the Huisman crane will be built in Huisman’s own production facility in Xiamen, P.R. of China and installed at the shipyard. With an unrivalled crane capacity of over 3,000 tonnes and an evenly unrivalled lifting height, this jack-up vessel will be able to support the renewable energy industry to build the future wind farms at sea.

On Friday 18 January, representatives of CMHI and Huisman witnessed the cutting ceremony of the DES Innovative Drilling System project at Huisman China. The Huisman innovative drilling system will be integrated and installed on the moored drilling semi-submersible constructed at CMHI Haimen. This drilling system will be used for oil and gas drilling activities in shallow to medium water depths all around Asia, particularly the South China Sea. It will be delivered in the second quarter of 2020 to CMHI Jiangsu Yard in China. Fabrication and final commissioning work will take place at Huisman China.

We are excited to announce that the Maersk Supply Service vessel 'Maersk Inventor' is nominated for Offshore Support Journal’s Vessel of the Year Award. 'The Maersk Inventor' is equipped with a 400mt Huisman Hybrid Boom Crane.

Recently, Huisman, the worldwide provider of stepchanging technical solutions, signed a contract with Japan Marine United Shipyard (JMU) for the delivery of a 1,000mt SWL Pedestal Mounted Crane for offshore wind turbine installation in Japan. The 1,000mt PMC will be built and delivered at Huisman China, installation will take place at JMU’s shipyard in Japan.

Last week, Huisman, the worldwide provider of step changing technical solutions, was awarded a contract by Jan De Nul Group for the delivery of the most advanced monopile gripper to date. The monopile gripper, which has a modular, tailor made design to allow use on a wide range of projects, will be used by Jan De Nul Group for the installation of monopiles for offshore wind farms, such as Northwester 2. The delivery is planned for Q2 2019 after which installation will take place on wind turbine installation vessel ‘Vole au vent’.

On 20 September, the KIVI section Offshore Engineering awarded their annual graduation prize to the best bachelor and master graduate in an offshore engineering related topic in 2017. KIVI, the Royal Dutch Institute of Engineers, established this prize for students years ago to accentuate the importance of research in Offshore Technology, to inform the industry and society about results of graduation projects, to stimulate the Offshore Engineering study and high-quality graduation theses and to strengthen the connection between students and KIVI. The theses are judged by a board of very experienced representatives of the offshore industry and universities.

Huisman, the worldwide provider of stepchanging technical solutions, successfully finalised the upgrade to 1,100mt of two 900mt Heavy Lift Mast Cranes onboard BigLift’s heavy lift vessel ‘Happy Star’ giving the vessel capabilities unmatched in the world fleet of heavy lift vessels. The recent upgrade was executed at the Huisman Service & Assembly location in Schiedam, the Netherlands.

This week, China Merchants Heavy Industries (CMHI) awarded Huisman, the worldwide provider of stepchanging technical solutions, a contract for the engineering and fabrication of a drilling system which will be integrated and installed on the moored drilling semi-submersible constructed at CMHI Haimen. This drilling system will be used for oil and gas drilling activities in shallow to medium water depths all around Asia, particularly the South China Sea.

Huisman, the worldwide provider of stepchanging technical solutions, and the Australasian Training Company (ATC) signed a cooperation agreement for the joint offering of Offshore Crane Operator, Offshore Rigger, Offshore Crane Inspector and other associated training packages and competency assurance solutions. With this partnership, Huisman and ATC are the only parties offering American API RP2D & Spec 2C training courses for crane operators, riggers and crane inspectors in Singapore. This makes them the only service providers in the Australasian region offering internationally recognised offshore crane training and qualifications to Australian, British and American standards at the one location.

Huisman recently started a new business line ‘Huisman Geo’, for the development of sustainable solutions towards affordable and clean energy and as one of its contributions to the energy transition. Huisman Geo combines the extensive design and manufacturing knowledge of Huisman, with the operational experience of drilling multiple wells in the European and US hydrocarbon and geothermal land drilling market.

The Joint Venture Züblin Ground Engineering and Huisman were awarded a contract for the delivery of a geothermal well in Mehrnbach, Ried im Innkreis, Austria. The company GRB Geothermie Ried Bohrung GmbH, a subsidiary of Energie Ried GmbH, Energie AG Wärme GmbH and Nahwärme Mehrnbach GmbH & Co KG, contracted the Joint Venture for drilling and completion of the geothermal well TH3.1 via a day rate based contract.

Huisman and RAMLAB have initiated a project to produce a large offshore crane hook using the 3D printing technique ‘Wire & Arc Additive Manufacturing’ (WAAM). The hook, which is based on a Huisman 4-prong hook design, will employ 3D printing benefits such that the product will be hollow, significantly saving on material usage and production lead time. The hook will measure over 1 by 1 meter in outer dimensions and weigh close to 1000 kg, making it the world’s largest 3D printed steel product in terms of weight. Its Safe Working Load (SWL) will be 325mt. At the beginning of this year, Huisman successfully load tested a 3D printed offshore crane hook with an SWL of 80mt.

Huisman announced today that the Huisman Board has appointed Martijn Reissenweber as the new Director Huisman Services, effective as per today. This appointment follows Peter de Vin’s decision to accept the role of Director Huisman Geo.

Huisman was recently awarded a contract for the delivery of a geothermal doublet in Pijnacker, the Netherlands. Drilling started at the end of April and the installation will heat a large area of greenhouses, a residential area and a local pool. 

Huisman announced today that Theo Bruijninckx is appointed as the company’s new Chief Executive Officer, effective as per today. This appointment follows the decision of Joop Roodenburg to step down as the company’s CEO to fulfil the role of President. Theo Bruijninckx is overall responsible for the daily operation of the company, Joop Roodenburg will focus on the continuous development of step changing technical solutions and on the valued relationships with customers.  The Huisman Works Council, which was involved in the process, gave a positive advice on the appointment.

• Partners plan to build 250kW energy storage prototype this year
• Plans for long-term partnership to bring gravity-fed technology to market
• Technology will contribute to grid stabilisation and fast frequency response

Energy storage start-up Gravitricity has teamed up with worldwide lifting, drilling and subsea specialists Huisman to develop a scale demonstrator of their innovative gravity-fed energy storage system.

Jumbo recently made a formal investment decision to appoint Huisman Equipment BV for the provision of the design and construction of two offshore mast cranes for their new DP2 Heavy Lift Crane Vessel (HLCV) to be delivered in the first quarter of 2020.

The Carbon Trust today announced the launch of BLUE PILOT, a large-scale demonstration project aimed at reducing costs and underwater noise during construction of offshore wind farms as part of the Offshore Wind Accelerator (OWA). The BLUE PILOT project will deploy The BLUE Hammer, a new type of pile driver developed by Fistuca BV., a Dutch technology company founded as a spin-off from Eindhoven University of Technology. It is anticipated that the project will enable €33 – 40 million lifetime savings for a 720MW offshore wind farm, which is equal to a levelised cost of energy (LCOE) reduction of 0.9-1.2 €/MWh.

On Wednesday 28 February, the 1,600mt Huisman Leg Encircling Crane for Van Oord was successfully installed onboard their offshore installation vessel Aeolus. The new crane, the biggest Leg Encircling Crane ever built, will enable Van Oord to install bigger and heavier foundations and turbines for offshore wind farms. The Huisman crane was installed by Heerema’s Thialf, making it a pretty spectacular sight!

Last night during the OSJ Conference Gala Dinner in London, Huisman was awarded the Innovation of the Year Award for its Fiber Rope System. Timon Ligterink, Sales Manager at Huisman, collected the award. Our design was nominated at the very last moment after our initial press release.

In the first week of 2018, world’s first 3D printed offshore crane hook, manufactured by worldwide provider of step changing technical solutions Huisman, successfully passed its load test (80mt) and all associated quality control checks according to the strictest criteria. Crane hooks are typically manufactured by casting or forging techniques. Huisman’s 3D printing technology however catches up to what could become the new future manufacturing technology.