AUTOMATION INTEREST<\/strong><\/p>\nInterest 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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).<\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
Paceco Corp, another well-known manufacturer, further confirms the steadily growing interest in automation for handling functions with US-based Troy Collard, General Sales Manager, Paceco, noting that the company is building upon its existing semi-automated capability with full automation now under development.<\/p>\n
Where there is plainly great interest in capitalising on the powers of automation is in conjunction with what can broadly be called support or safety functions. Typically, for instance, Liebherr points out that its STS crane design incorporates a remote crane management system allowing for remote assistance, service and diagnostics. Plus, the design, \u201c\u2026features a traffic light system for controlled traffic flow, laser and mechanical crane to crane anti-collision systems, ultrasonic anti-collision systems for gantry travel as well as laser boom to vessel anti-collision and sill beam protection systems.\u201d<\/p>\n
Konecranes also underlines the importance of such features highlighting the importance of its predictive maintenance system coupled with its TRUECONNECT remote monitoring service, as well as diverse features which serve to promote operator efficiency. In the same vein, O\u2019 Donoghue points out that while Liebherr\u2019s STS cranes have benefited from a mechanical anti-sway system, \u201cthat is a favourite among crane operators for many years, electronic anti-sway is also now available and is supplied as a component of many of our automation sub systems.\u201d<\/p>\n
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SUSTAINABILITY SEARCH<\/strong><\/p>\nIn crane design and in their manufacturing and business activities considerable emphasis is now being placed by key crane manufacturers on sustainable arrangements. On the design side electric power is a key factor including the feedback of generated electricity to the grid. LED lighting is a factor as is the better overall control of the handling process and crane movement through systems such as anti-sway and anti-skew.<\/p>\n
At the individual company level, there is also great attention to achieving sustainability in-house. O\u2019 Donoghue notes that Liebherr has recently been awarded a gold medal for sustainability from sustainability ratings supplier EcoVadis. Konecranes points out that in December 2020 it signed the Science Based Targets Initiative and earlier this year it published its new climate targets which it says, \u201chave been validated as being in line with the ambition to limit global warming to 1.5degC.\u201d<\/p>\n
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STRUCTURAL INNOVATION<\/strong><\/p>\nInnovation in the area of STS crane structural design has been quite notable in a macro context recently \u2013 ZPMC is centre stage with this, originating in conjunction with Liftech, the new generation Balance crane design (see box story) and also a new light-weight STS crane that employs \u2018spiral pipe\u2019 in its construction. Reportedly, this pipe is originated by rolling strip at a helical angle and then welding.<\/p>\n
At a more micro level, there is also evidence of crane structural component innovation with Liebherr reporting a recent crane design for Alicante which can be used on both an older and new quay. The design was accomplished, notes the company, without any compromises. Generally, it also points out that the lattice type crane structure employed in its STS container crane design, together with the use of high tensile steel, ensures a low centre of gravity and consequently lower wheel loads. Both Konecranes and Paceco also report the proven ability to lower wheel loads with Paceco further pointing out that its monobox boom and the use of a self-propelled trolley are a lighter arrangement than a twin girder crane thereby inherently reducing wheel loadings.<\/p>\n
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CONTINUOUS PROCESS<\/strong><\/p>\nDesign refinement in the STS container crane sector is a continuous process with this closely allied to meeting new user requirements, many dictated by container system upgrades. It is interesting that ZPMC has recently originated two new crane designs \u2013 it begs the question does the competitive cost basis of Chinese production facilitate such innovation?<\/p>\n
In this context and generally it will be interesting to see what follows Kalmar\u2019s withdrawal from the heavy crane sector and its parent Cargotec\u2019s transfer of related intellectual properties and assets to RIC in China \u2013 see Equipment News. One thing is for sure, the sector is very market responsive, a positive achievement in a business climate where the Cargotec relinquishment of its heavy cranes portfolio, including STS units, signals tough competition and squeezed margins.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":696,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,36],"tags":[63,61,57,56,64,58,65,59,62,60],"sponsor":[],"class_list":["post-695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-container-cargo-handling","category-products-services","tag-balance-crane","tag-evergreen","tag-konecranes","tag-liebherr","tag-liftech-consultants","tag-paceco","tag-port-of-duqm","tag-rtg","tag-sts","tag-zpmc"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport-congress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport-congress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport-congress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport-congress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport-congress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=695"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport-congress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":697,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport-congress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695\/revisions\/697"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport-congress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport-congress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport-congress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport-congress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=695"},{"taxonomy":"sponsor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport-congress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sponsor?post=695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}