The 140 Ton Navy Crane is the Coolest Thing Made in Wisconsin, as decided by an annual competition from Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce and Johnson Financial Group.
The crane, made by Broadwind Heavy Fabrications in Manitowoc, was announced as the winner of the 2021 Coolest Things Made in Wisconsin Thursday.
The crane was engineered, fabricated, machined, painted, assembled, tested and delivered through a partnership between Broadwind Heavy Fabrications and Konecranes, a Finnish company.
The crane gets its name from how much it can lift — 140 tons. The crane alone weighs 1,400 tons.
The 160-foot, 2.7-million pound crane was shipped to Portsmouth, N.H. on Memorial Day weekend. It departed from the Manitowoc River, then traveled to Lake Michigan, through the Great Lakes Waterway and into the Atlantic.
The crane will be based at a coastal United States Navy station.
“Broadwind Heavy Fabrications is extremely honored to have won The Coolest Thing Made in Wisconsin award for 2021. On behalf of our great Broadwind employees we would like to say thank you to our partner customer Konecranes and all of our Wisconsin based suppliers who made this possible,” said Broadwind Heavy Fabrications President Dan Schueller in a news release.
The Coolest Thing Made in Wisconsin contest recognizes the contributions of manufacturers to the state’s economy. Nearly 210,000 votes were cast in multiple rounds of voting.
Other finalists in the contest included: Caterpillar Global Mining in South Milwaukee, Mercury Marine in Fond du Lac and Kwik Trip in La Crosse.
“Wisconsin has a diverse and robust manufacturing industry as demonstrated by the products nominated for this year’s program,” said WMC President & CEO Kurt Bauer in a news release. “We are proud to once again highlight not only the cool things we make in Wisconsin, but the rewarding careers available in the industry.”
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