According to Rene Kleiss, Vice President, Harbour Cranes at Cargotec, APM Terminals presented a very innovative solution with good conceptual thinking for increasing waterside capacity. “But with this new design, some associated issues must be addressed. For instance, APMT’s solution aims to increase waterside efficiency, but how will the landside handling system accommodate the higher volumes? APMT has not addressed this issue and the handling bottleneck is predominantly on the landside. Also, although the solution looks technically feasible, adding numerous technologies (for example cameras, detection systems, etc.) may increase the risk for higher failure rates. Also, maintenance tasking will be more challenging,” Klein added. Any suggestions to complement the land-side crane [s] by a floating container crane to improve productivity are also quickly dismissed by Kleiss. “Again, the idea behind the floating container crane concept is to increase waterside operating capacity. This concept also fails to address the need to accommodate a subsequent increase in landside capacity. However, certain trans-shipment vessels could be serviced by floating container cranes if it were possible to handle containers directly from mother vessel to barges and/or feeder vessels,” said Kleiss.
Automation
Understanding the issue of larger and/or faster container cranes it is necessary for each design concept to address the landside handling systems and how they will accommodate higher volumes. The need to synchronise this might be resolved by automation. Svend Videbaek, Marketing Manager – Port Cranes at Konecranes points out that in the opinion of Konecranes and many of their colleagues in the industry, the most important improvement in container cranes over the last decade has been the introduction of automation to the container yard – although this is more of an evolutionary movement than an improvement. “The business logic of automation is built on a number of key drivers related to the timing, scheduling and overall predictability of container handling operations. Automation provides the means to respond to these drivers in controlled investment phases. The potential of automation to improve the predictability, productivity and safety of container terminal operations is such that the growth of its importance is inevitable, starting first with the largest container ports and later encompassing medium-sized container ports and intermodal terminals,” said Videbaek. “A number of automation technologies are established in other industries and within the adaptive grasp of container handling equipment manufacturers. There is also great scope for invention and innovation in container handling automation as a distinct area, and Konecranes is working closely together with major container terminal operators that have decided to adopt automation on a large scale,” Videbaek added.
Similar answers come from Kleiss as he points out that another critical development in the quay crane market is the importance of TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) and the contribution suppliers can offer towards the performance of the terminal. “Cargotec has developed several concepts for implementing a guarantee per move and we’re willing to discuss our commitment towards customers’ operational performance,” he said. “A lot of individual systems have been improved over the last ten years to increase operational availability. A major development is the reduction of hydraulic systems on the crane (e.g. trim/list, skew and snag load device, etc). As part of our strategy, Cargotec aims to offer solutions which also reduce environmental pollution and save energy.”
Future
Following on from the comments made by Konecranes, the era of container terminal automation is clearly underway. The fundamental first steps have already been made as rail-mounted container cranes (Automatic Stacking Cranes) are established pieces of automated equipment providing increased predictability, productivity and safety. “Total management of the terminal operations has already been boosted by bringing automated machines into the TOS, and GPS technology is providing the means to track containers with great precision in real-time. In the coming decade, more container crane types will join the automation fold in steps that follow the business logic of container terminal operators. The logic of the business will determine the speed and shape of the evolution of container handling automation,” says Videbaek. “We believe that tandem lift container handling on ship-to-shore cranes will be deployed in limited situations using a system that is highly flexible and simple,” said Kleiss. For example, Cargotec’s Kalmar tandem head-block design affords such flexibility and efficiency. “More automation will be used in waterside handling. Using cameras and other safety devices, operators will be able to remotely handle containers from a stationary cabin above-the-ship position or perhaps, in the future, from a landside-stationed operation room. This might be done in combination with a second trolley system. The horizontal transportation of the landside operation will be more and more fully automated using, for example, unmanned straddle or shuttle carriers, and automatic stacking cranes with the twin-crane concept in the terminal yard,” he added. “Most likely, there will be step-by-step developments to achieve gradual capacity increases using some of the above mentioned design proposals. However, if the conventional design of terminals continues then major design changes to waterside equipment will not be likely. In this sense, Fastnet is still considered conventional. Perhaps the Ceres Paragon concept will prove to be an interesting alternative and contribute to further design changes. STS cranes are only a part of the whole cargo flow concept at terminals and only if the entire handling system changes dramatically will we see possible changes to the STS design,” Kleiss concluded. Perhaps designers of new container cranes should not concentrate on improvement of productivity but work with existing criteria, improve them and most importantly synchronise the handling systems both on land-side and water-side. But that is going to be boring!