CONTAINER HANDLING: SHIP-TO-SHORE
STS DESIGN: NEW FRONTIERS New concepts in STS container crane design have been introduced recently but the main emphasis in design is on refining existing elements to promote efficiency and sustainability. Mike Mundy reviews the initiatives
8 There is steadily building interest in ship-to-shore container cranes specified with a remote operation capability
Design priorities at the top end of the ship-to-shore container crane market have a strong focus on making improvements to the crane systems in service today. There are entirely new ship-to-shore (STS) crane designs and concepts on the drawing board – for example the Balance Crane design developed by Liftech Consultants of California in conjunction with ZPMC, the Shanghai headquartered crane manufacturer (see box story), and Kone’s multi-trolley crane concept which facilitates vessel working from both sides of a ship in an indented berth. In the main, however, design innovation is proceeding within the framework of established STS crane design parameters. Trevor O’ Donoghue, Marketing Manager, Liebherr Container Cranes, puts the spotlight on these when he identifies key design drivers today as “… automation, digitalisation, sustainability, safety, matching vessel size, improving productivity and responding to client specific requirements.” The crane size issue is an interesting one, with the perennial question hanging over it of how much further can you go? As O’ Donoghue notes: “To-date many of the Liebherr STS produced have outreaches well in excess of 70m and feature a lift height of 54m or more.” Current top-of-the-range STS container crane configurations are proven to be able to efficiently serve vessels with a capacity of up to 24,000TEU – Evergreen’s recently commissioned Ever Alot has a capacity of 24,004TEU. There has been talk of even larger vessels, 25,000TEU to 30,000TEU but while acknowledging that such designs are technically feasible the general feedback from the shipping sector is that they offer little merit economically, not much gain in terms of reduced slot cost, pose challenges in terms of achieving a high level of slot utilisation and most significantly would likely generate a prohibitive level of investment requirement on the landside.
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It is thus within the existing top-end parameters of STS container crane design that innovation looks set to proceed, with the current weighty container vessel order book confirming this. AUTOMATION INTEREST Interest in harnessing the powers of automation continues to build in high income economies, where labour costs are high, and to an increasing extent in upper middle-income economies. According to Simo Mustalammi, Director, STS Cranes, Konecranes, as regards the specific aspect of automating for remote operation there is building interest but as yet selective take-up. One example, however, of the steadily widening interest in remote operation and automation in the operating cycle is the specification of four high-capacity STS container cranes in a package order, which includes, 12 rubber tyred gantries (RTGs) recently placed by the Port of Duqm, Oman with Liebherr Container Cranes. Each of the Duqm STS Cranes will possess an outreach of 71m, a back-reach of 18m, a lift height over the rail of 50m and have a safe working load of 65 tonnes under a twin-lift spreader. They will be supplied without a cabin and operated utilising a combination of remote control and automation. Automation will take care of the majority of the cycle with operator intervention only required when operating below a predefined safe height. Each Liebherr STS will be connected to its own dedicated Remote Operator Station (ROS). The centrally located remote operation facility will also host the ROS for control of the automated RTGs. The cabinless RTGs feature automation over the stack with remote control only required for container pick or place from the truck trailers, or for exceptional handling circumstances. Four ROS operators will operate the twelve RTGs.
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