Taisun, Industrial gantry crane in Yantai, China
Taisun is an industrial gantry crane at the Yantai Raffles Shipyard that lifts and moves massive sections of ships in a single operation. The structure reaches about 80 meters high and can handle loads of up to 20,000 tons with its powerful equipment.
The crane was built at Yantai Raffles and demonstrated its extraordinary power during testing in 2008. This capability changed how shipbuilders approach construction, allowing them to work with entire sections as single pieces instead of many smaller parts.
The name comes from Mount Taishan, a sacred mountain in Chinese culture located in the same Shandong province where the crane stands today.
Visitors can view the crane from the shipyard grounds, with certain vantage points showing its full scale and structure. The best time to visit is during active shipbuilding to see the machine operating, though access to the site may be restricted for safety reasons.
The crane is held in place by 50,000 meters of steel wire rope, allowing precise control when massive ship sections are being worked on from above and below at the same time. This wire system is key to what makes the machine able to do such complex lifts.
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