We have seen it all before – bigger ships force operators to purchase bigger cranes, and with the arrival of the Triple-E vessels it is no different especially for those terminal operators that are looking toward the future. For example already this year Yilport Holding welcomed the arrival four new super Post-Panamax gantry cranes able to handle Triple-E vessels to its Gemlik port in Turkey. Equipped with the latest technology, these new gantry cranes represent a multi-million dollar investment in the future of Yilport as the new gateway to the region. They are also the first batch of an order of eight 61 tonnes SWL, 63.5m outreach (23-wide) Paceco  Portainers manufactured by Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding Co (MES) in Japan and are part of the Gemlik Terminal’s expansion project with a completion date set for April 2014.

Another terminal focusing on handling the Triple-E vessels in the future is APMT MVII in the port of Rotterdam, the Netherlands where 8 Kalmar (Cargotec) STS cranes, equipped fully with remote control are being installed. According to Annelies Nentjes, Marketing Manager – Cranes and Terminal Projects, Cargotec Netherlands, the trend that some of these terminals are setting for remote operator control, camera added operation, (semi)-automation components such as active sway- and skew control will be part of a standard portfolio. “Profile scanning of vessel, collision avoidance and auto-trajectory at high speed also will become more common in the future,” Nentjes added. “In addition, the application of Tandem Lift will be developed further and also the concept of a second-trolley system in combination with such systems will increase. “Trevor O’Donoghue, spokesperson for Liebherr Container Cranes, Irelands agrees and states that the continued drive for various levels of automation on new developments is becoming the ‘norm.’ “The incorporation of productivity technologies has become much more widespread on both larger and smaller cranes. This is particularly evident in busy and expanding ports,” says O’Donoghue. “In addition the demand for greener technologies continues and we have developed our product with this in mind. Our crane design with optimised weight distribution brings numerous benefits in terms of reduced materials, reduced civil works, reduced maintenance, reduced power consumption etc. The Liebherr energy efficient drive systems have been custom-designed for the Liebherr ship-to-shore crane and so require less power per cycle. Fully regenerative drives and laminated motors lead to further power savings and environmental benefits,” he added. “We are continuing work on our cranes with some significant innovation on both our drive systems and our proprietary crane management and diagnostic tools. The incorporation of technology and sensors into the cranes and the associated increase and widespread availability of computing power and storage will facilitate the monitoring of crane activity and box handling cycles like never before, with a view to further optimise all variables within this cycle.” Recent projects have seen Liebherr build some of the largest and most advanced cranes in the world including their double boom container cranes in the Port of Aliaga in Turkey. But Cargotec’s Nentjes points out that the technical challenge for the near future will be the design for Tripe-E vessel type STS cranes on brown-field terminals and the implementation of systems on civil structures with limitations. “On top of that the reliability and performance both operational as well as from a maintenance point of view will be an important selection criteria for terminals. Developments in energy savings and noise emission will also be pushed forward,” Nentjes added.

Safety & productivity

There is a general feeling that over the next ten years the design of container cranes will be further enhanced by the increase in the use of technology. “Technical developments which make crane operations safer and more productive have been integral in the development of container cranes over the last number of years and critical to meet health and safety guidelines,” explains O’Donoghue. Perhaps another point to consider is that the next generation of cranes will be high-tech and require highly trained people to operate and support them. In the case of Yilport their technicians have been sent to Japan for maintenance training and are using a crane simulator to develop the skills of the local drivers. Increasing safety and productivity is high on the list of terminal operators and Liebherr has seen an increase of the use of their LiSIM STS & RTG crane simulator. The LiSIM brings real and quantifiable benefits to a port operation. It increases port safety and productivity by providing a cost-effective and highly efficient crane operator training solution.

In the virtual port environment of a simulator, damage to cranes, vessels and other maritime equipment is completely eliminated. Likewise, using a simulator minimises the possibility of injuries to port personnel during training, and improves overall safety levels of a port by allowing trainees to spend extended time in the virtual environment, learning how to react instinctively to unexpected situations.

A word of caution

As much larger cranes come in to service some words of caution come from Micheal Jordan, CEO at Liftech Consultants about how important it is to implement regular maintenance intervals for cranes [in general].

“Educate inspectors and maintenance personnel about fatigue phenomena so they know what to look for, how to look, and which indications are important and which are not,” Jordan says. “If you have a limited budget, which most have, concentrate on avoiding catastrophes and tolerate nuisance failures. Put your money where it does the most good. Make decisions based on rational engineering analysis. Use visual inspection; but in addition, always use some magnetic particle or similar NDT methods to examine the surfaces at weld toes. Inspect full penetration welds using ultrasonic examination. Visual inspection isn’t useless; but remember by the time you can see a crack, unaided, the number of load applications before failure is often five percent of those already experienced. So a visible crack means failure will be sooner rather than later. Determine inspection intervals based on your acceptable risk. Use an acceptable risk approach and not an approach based on predicted crack growth size studies. Base the interval on crack initiation and the ability to find cracks.”

Jordan’s advice might highlight a recent case where one boom support hanger on a ship-to-shore crane was fractured. The low profile boom was extended over the ship, which was unable to depart as planned because the boom was in the way. This begged the question: why did the hanger fail? It was overload tested just weeks earlier. So how could it not be strong enough? According to Jordan the hanger fails when a fatigue crack grows in critical size. The size is critical when the work done by the deflecting cracked structure exceeds the work absorbed by the cleaving steel, resulting in brittle fracture. This failure could have been avoided if the personnel involved in the “thorough” examination understood the issues.  The overload test only tests the yield strength of the structure. It can’t test the fatigue strength after there is more use. It only tests the present condition. Later, after more load cycles, which make cracks grow, the lifting capacity is less. But on this occasion there was one more event worth mentioning. When the engineer examined the failed plate, he discovered wet paint on the hanger right where the brittle failure occurred. Why was there wet paint? The original paint had been removed and the crane had been inspected by magnetic particle examination and then repainted the day before!  So what went wrong? There was a load test. There was an inspection. But the players, although competent and conscientious, simply didn’t understand fatigue and brittle fracture. They thought
the overload test proved the crane was safe, a common misconception. [Jordan will go in to greater details on this ‘common misconception’ in our Container Crane & Components Supplement published with our May issue of World Port Development.]

Jordan concludes by saying that most cranes come with a recommended inspection regimen. And, based on Liftech’s research, most operators don’t follow the recommendations. They modify the plan without sufficient knowledge to make cost effective decisions. Some details that should be inspected are not and some that aren’t worth being inspected are. Considering the cost of inspections, attempts to not perform the full regimen are reasonable. Just as for earthquakes and high winds, the chance of a catastrophe fatigue failure is low and is very unlikely to occur during a particular person’s watch. But they do occur, sooner or later. Failure is unlikely.  The damage, however, may be great.  To conclude this article it would be silly to state the obvious – be it new cranes capable of handling the Triple-E vessels or ‘older’ cranes there is one golden rule – avoid deviating from the recommended maintenance inspection cycle.

BOX Story

e-chain solutions for cranes

For about 15 years Germany-based igus has successfully implemented roller energy chains on crane systems. Today the fourth generation of the igus roller e-chain is in use. The roller e-chain series P4 is used especially on high-speed STS cranes and is the heart of a well-functioning e-chain system. Another important component of this system is the cables. To meet the need for increased data, cable manufacturers are shifting from traditional twisted copper cables, still required for power transmission, to fibre optics, where signals are transmitted by light unaffected by any magnetic fields within the crane.

In the past, ports had numerous problems with festoon systems causing the damaging of cables through uncontrollable movement. To overcome these problems, igus has developed a complete cable programme especially for e-chain crane applications. Today, for all STS, RTG and RMG cranes igus offers their e-chain and chain-flex cable solutions, with the benefit of much shorter moving cable length compared to festoon systems, and reduced weight because of the length, but also smarter, thinner, lighter cable constructions.

With almost 16,000 lives lost amid widespread devastation, getting Japan back on its feet became the consuming national priority. Somewhere on that list, was the rebuilding of ports and power plants, which lay in ruins in what was later described as the costliest natural disaster in world history. Equipment was a mangled mess of twisted metal. Getting industry back on its feet was a task that saw IHI Transport Machinery Co Ltd right at the heart of the work renewing five sets of continuous shipunloaders (CSUs) at severely damaged coal handling plants. One of the world’s leading makers of bucket-type continuous shipunloaders, IHI stepped up concentrating on the job at home and is only now moving on full-heartedly to business opportunities in bulk material handling elsewhere. “We worked devotedly for this earthquake disaster reconstruction and finally completed the recovery projects last year after more than two years from the day the disaster happened,” says IHI Senior Manager, Overseas Sales Department, Masao Akamatsu. In his view the current global market trend is for increasing emphasis on providing post sales service covering the entire working life of a CSU and that’s what IHI pledges for its customers.

Revolutionary

Not surprisingly, after its extensive recovery work in Japan, IHI’s research and development department has been busy and has come up with a new design for a revolutionary seismic isolation mechanism to secure the stability of its CSUs in any future earthquake. For most other CSU makers such as Germany rivals ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions GmbH and Forderanlagen Magdeburg (FAM), Korea’s Doosan Heavy Industries, Italy’s Tenova Group, China’s ZPMC, and continuous barge unloader specialists Heyl & Patterson and Metso Minerals in North America, the past year has seen the usual scramble for business in a world market finally awakening from years of recession. Some, like Tenova with its patented articulated digging foot, have big CSU contracts about to be announced, but couldn’t reveal details at time of writing. Others, like ThyssenKrupp and its bulk handling business unit in Rohrbach in Germany have much to talk about in a market that seems to be more buoyant than usual in 2014 with growing inquiries. Following the placement of CSUs at a new Guangzhou City  Zhujiang power plant back in 1994, ThyssenKrupp won a June 2012 contract to supply and installation of two further units as the power plant began its Phase 2 expansion. Delivery was completed by the end of 2013 and commercial operation was set to start in February 2014.

China successes

For Dr Wei Ye, ThyssenKrupp’s Vice President Sales, the Chinese contract underscored the faith and satisfaction in the German company’s bulk material handling equipment which he says has earned them 75% of market share. The two new CSUs can unload at rates up to 1,600 tonnes per hour, working ship sizes up to 70,000 deadweight tonnes with future prospects of being able to unload ships up to 100,000 dwt. The contract adds to ThyssenKrupp’s past successes in China where it now has more than 60 machines – including CSUs, coal car dumpers, shiploaders, and stacker-reclaimers – in service at coal ports and power plants. Dr Ye puts the growing success in China down to ThyssenKrupp’s extensive experience, the excellent performance of CSUs already in service, the long lifetime and high availability of those machines, and reliable technical services to keep the machines up and running. While it signed no CSU contracts in 2013, ThyssenKrupp is currently working on CSU inquiries from at least five coal-fired power plants in Southeast Asia including Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and China. In his view, the low world price for thermal coal – recently in the USD70 to D80 range per tonne – is acting as a catalyst for further power plant development, particularly in comparison to the higher cost of nuclear, sonar, or wind power development.

Similar story

The story is much the same at FAM where Director of Sales, Ulrich Schneider, reports no new recent contracts for CSUs at a time when his company in general is signing some of the biggest contracts for other equipment in its history in a variety of industrial sectors. FAM has placed five bucket-type CSUs throughout Asia in recent years and is actively chasing new inquiries, although Schneider says the cement industry queries are muted with no new investments just plant extensions on the horizon. From Japan, IHI has also found the Southeast Asia market for CSUs to its liking and has completed a two machine project for the largest steel mill in Taiwan for Dragon Steel Corp, part of the China Steel Group. That brought to four units that IHI has provided for the steel mill company. The CSUs are capable of unloading iron ore at a rate of 3,000 tonnes per hour and coal at 2,100 tph. In Vietnam, IHI is supplying two CSUs in 2014 and 2015 of similar capacities as the Taiwan units for the Formosa Ha Tinh Vietnam Integrated Steel Project. The Formosa Plastic Group project is ambitious, says IHI’s Akamatsu, and is the first mega scale integrated steel mill in the Southeast Asian region. The two-phase project will be at 7 million tonnes of crude steel in its current first phase and will increase to 20 million tonnes of crude steel in its second phase. In Korea, CSU maker Doosan is poised to take advantage of any global economic rebound and in his New Year’s message, the group Chairman, Yongmaan Park, talked of being ready to harvest the fruits from the recovery this year. “Since we don’t have much time left before the recovery cycle will commence, we must spur ourselves to achieve even more and outpace other global top-tier companies,” he said.

Barge unloaders

As the smaller cousins of the huge CSUs, continuous barge unloaders (CBUs) serve the vital river traffic of the world’s waterways, battling their arch enemy grab cranes. In North America, with its myriad of inland waterways, the big names are Heyl & Patterson and Metso Minerals when it comes to CBUs. Heyl & Patterson Executive Vice President, Harry Edelman, is intrigued with a possible developing trend around the world centering on what he calls the Mississippi style barge, particularly when starting from scratch in developing countries. Which would be good news for H&P but so far it has produced “some nibbles but no bites” when it comes to solid inquiries. H&P installed and commissioned two CBUs for a Baton Rouge LA grain operation last year and two more are being assembled now for a New Orleans coal plant for commissioning this summer. Edelman remains optimistic about future CBU trends even if the barge unloaders “are not machines you sell daily.” Worldwide demand is not a great number when it comes to CBU sales, but he is heartened by a few recent international inquiries. “We still see our design as a U.S. design but there are people looking into using this Mississippi style barge concept.”

Too durable

Part of the problem for CBU manufacturers like H&P is that the machines are highly durable and don’t need replacing for 25 to 40 years. “We’ve never really replaced one yet, just installed new booms and upgraded parts  . . . they’re just too durable,” Edelman says. Meanwhile, one of the big guns in CSU manufacture has also had success with a CBU contract. ThyssenKrupp’s Dr Ye reports that the company’s chain bucket elevator type continuous barge unloader won out over grab type barge unloaders in a multi-faceted contract for boiler plant project for Pupuk Kaltim at a fertiliser complex in Kalimantan in Indonesia which began commercial operation last year. The contract also included a circular stacker and side scraper reclaimer, domed storage and a covered conveyor belt system for the German company. ThyssenKrupp is also reported to have its eye on sales in North America.

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Prevalent at container terminals the world over, straddle carriers continue to be a source of high order levels for heavy lift manufacturers. Indeed, in an economic climate that doesn’t always bring good news, it’s heartening to hear competitors in the market talking of growth. They’ve also got plenty to report in terms of product innovations – with a particular focus on environmentally friendly enhancements. As detailed by the Cargotec-owned manufacturer Kalmar, part of the straddle carrier’s appeal is in how it can help to optimise terminal productivity by decoupling waterside and landside operations. Its speed, reach and flexibility can enable terminals to use a single type of equipment for all container operations. Shuttle carriers, in turn, are the ideal horizontal transportation system for terminals designed around automated stacking cranes or rubber-tyred gantry cranes. Another underpinning aspect of straddle carriers’ enduring success can be noted in their sheer ubiquity at container ports around the globe. This is certainly reflected in Terex Port Solutions’ observation that around 75% of its straddle and sprinter carrier sales are for replacement units, with the remaining 25% being for the expansion of fleets.  While it cannot provide exact figures, it notes that 2013 sales were “aligned” to the preceding year, and if anything were up slightly by between 5 and 10%.  Long-term relationships with clients provide another common theme among straddle carrier orders. This was certainly a regular characteristic in Liebherr’s order books, as it enjoyed a good year in the straddle carrier market in 2013. It also struck deals with a number of new customers as it fulfilled orders from New Zealand and across Europe, which in turn have “already led to new contracts for additional machines, which are currently under progress.” The manufacturer expects the increasing stability in European markets and higher industrial output to glean further enquiries from European ports in the short term. Liebherr notes that demand in the market is primarily from customers looking for replacement machines or to add to capacity at existing terminals. It adds, however, that some green field sites are also now coming into the market.

Conversely, Kalmar notes that it saw a slight dip in the straddle carrier market in 2013, but adds that “overall market activity is increasing.” Even with that dip, the number of contracts it has publicly reported in the last year certainly suggests a healthy order book. These include a deal to supply 11 automated straddle carriers and 17 automated stacking cranes to the terminal services provider TraPac Inc in Los Angeles, and five Kalmar Classic straddle carriers to the Port of Tacoma, Washington, scheduled for delivery in the first quarter of 2014.

Meanwhile, a 2013 order from Asciano’s Patrick Port Botany terminal in Sydney, Australia, saw Kalmar achieve the milestone of manufacturing its 5,000th straddle carrier unit. This deal to deliver 44 machines was one of two notable Antipodean orders that Kalmar announced last year, the other being for two diesel electric Kalmar straddle carriers to New Zealand container handling operator Port Otago. It also notched a number of notable European contracts, including deals for customers in Belgium, Spain and, most recently, a delivery of six brand new Kalmar straddle carriers to DP World Southampton in a deal worth more than £3.6 million. These machines arrived just as work finished on the new deep-sea container berth at the terminal – part of a £150 million project by Associated British Ports to prepare the Port of Southampton for the next generation of ultra large container vessels.

REMOTE CONTROL

Among Liebherr’s recent big orders is a deal to supply one of the world’s busiest terminals, ECT in the Port of Rotterdam, with seven straddle carrier units. These machines are capable of stacking one over two containers high, have a safe working load of 40 tonnes, and are supplied with a Stinis spreader. They operate in the landside interface zone of the terminal, shuttling between the automatic stacking cranes and trucks. At a massive terminal like ECT, there’s a lot to consider in terms of logistics. The Liebherr straddle carriers will handle multi trailers for intra terminal transfer for onward transport by train or barge. They’re linked to a remote positional tracking system, providing real-time accurate information on the position and handling rates of containers within the terminal. Remote connectivity is also among Kalmar’s many areas of straddle carrier innovation. All of the manufacturer’s machines can be equipped with remote connection and monitoring to enable diagnostic applications with remote problem-solving capability. It additionally places a focus on automation.  

“Efficient automation solutions can bring significant gains in productivity and safety in container handling logistics,” the company tells WPD. “All the Kalmar models are future-proofed for automation and integrate seamlessly with the Kalmar SmartPort automation solutions. The automation level of new machines can be customised based on the terminal’s needs.”

ALL AROUND THE WORLD

In December, Terex announced that it had received several orders for diesel-electric straddle carriers from some of the world’s leading container terminal operators.  Among these are 11 NSC 634 E straddle carriers to Belgium’s PSA Antwerp NV, with deliveries starting in March. These machines will supplement PSA’s existing fleet in its various terminals around the Port of Antwerp. They will be fitted with custom equipment, including swiveling driver seats for improved ergonomics and other technical modifications to help PSA reduce maintenance costs and to provide secure operation. This follows on from the delivery of four Terex NSC 634 E and three Terex NSC 644 E straddle carriers to another Antwerp-based customer at the end of last year. These went to the MSC Home Terminal, a joint venture between PSA and Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC). These vehicles will be customised with complete hardware and software for seamless integration into the existing operational infrastructure. This includes camera systems for exact positioning under the ship-to-shore cranes and interface modules for wireless operating data acquisition and remote servicing. The Terex NSC 644 E straddle carrier can stack one over three containers and reaches a speed of 24 kph, while the Terex NSC 634 E straddle carrier can stack one over two containers and has a maximum speed of 30 kph.

Further afield, Terex’s ongoing relationship with Transnet Port Terminals (TPT), a division of the state-owned South African logistics group Transnet SOC Ltd, gleaned an order for 22 NSC 644 E models. TPT operates terminals in seven South African ports, including Durban, where 28 Terex straddle carriers have operated since 2012. Terex is now supplying 18 new machines for Durban, 13 of which were delivered late last year, with the remaining five set to arrive in April 2014. To complete the order package of 22 machines, Terex is delivering the final four units for the container terminal in Capetown. In another contract from 2013, Terex announced last May that it had received an order for 10 NSC 634 E ECO hybrid straddle carriers from the Bahamas’ Freeport Container Port (FCP), part of Hutchison Port Holdings, with an option to purchase an additional 12 machines. Prior to the order, there were already 25 diesel-hydraulic Terex NSC 644 H straddle carriers in use at FCP. The new machines stack 9’6” high-cube containers one over two and, to enable high handling rates, have lifting capacities of up to 60 tonnes under the spreader coupled with maximum travel speeds of 30 kph.  The manufacturer boasts that an “outstanding feature” of the Terex NSC E ECO model is its hybrid drive system, with its combination of diesel-powered generator and electrostatic short-term storage media offering significantly re
duced fuel consumption and exhaust emissions compared to a traditional drive system.

ECO EVOLUTION

As previously stated, environmental concerns are at the heart of many of the market’s current innovations. To this end, Kalmar announced last October that it was introducing what it called “the world’s first real hybrid straddle and shuttle carriers” to the market. The manufacturer boasts that these ecologically enhanced machines consume 40% less fuel than existing machinery. Kalmar also states that its hybrid models provide the best fuel efficiency on the market and meet the tightest engine emission regulations, reducing carbon dioxide emissions by more than 50 tonnes a year compared to traditional diesel-electric machines. The hybrid straddle and shuttle carriers operate with a regenerative energy system that converts electrical braking and spreader lowering energy into electric power that is stored through “state-of-the-art” battery technology. Its automated ‘start-stop system’ creates a balance between engine and battery power to extend engine and generator lifetimes and minimise the regularity of maintenance checks. Terex states that its straddle and sprinter carriers are powered by fuel-efficient diesel engines that always comply with the latest emission regulations. They are available with two different drive types – diesel-hydraulic and diesel-electric. Among the numerous environemntally friendly options and configurations the manufacturer offers is the ECOCap system. This energy-saving technology uses supercapacitators to store and recycle the energy from braking and lowering, using this to power hoisting moves.

SUPPLY AND DEMAND

Emissions regulations are often the driving force behind ecological innovations. But such enhancements are also often spurred on by direct feedback from the terminal operators themselves. Liebherr lists fuel efficiency, tyre life, safety, productivity and reliability as being among the core values that straddle carrier customers look out for. But the manufacturer notes that its ongoing enhancements to its machines’ environmental credentials must be delivered in tandem with improved productivity and reliability. So the variable drive system on its straddle carriers is designed to be both efficient and ecological.  It has, however, so far avoided the use of capacitators on its straddle carriers, stating that particular approach has “not proven cost-effective to date” and is “yet to be proven on the marketplace.” Liebherr machines do, however, utilise energy regeneration between the hoist and travel drives. In addition to the launch of its new hybrid carriers, Kalmar states that it has delivered a range of new features over the entirety of its straddle and shuttle carriers in response to customer needs. “In designing our next generation machines, we have been guided by the port and terminal industry’s requirement for low total cost of ownership, environmental sustainability, excellent usability and ergonomics, safety, productivity and automation,” says Dr Tero Kokko, Kalmar’s Vice President, Horizontal Transportation. “We think that the new Kalmar hybrid straddle and shuttle carriers are a true leap forward in terminal yard equipment, and are confident that they will offer significant customer benefits throughout the equipment lifetime.”

COMFORTING CHANGES

Another driving force in changing straddle and shuttle carrier technology is frequently, and quite literally, the driver. A comfortable, happy person at the controls means optimal productivity. So Kalmar has introduced a number of ergonomic enhancements, based on customer feedback. The redesigned cabin on its latest machines features a more spacious interior as well as new window geometry to reduce night-time reflections. And in addition to an intuitive user interface, the cabin has more ergonomic seating, reduced noise levels and excellent visibility in all directions. Kalmar has also been working on ways to deliver operational efficacy in harmony with safety. The new automatic stability control on its machines ensures smooth and safe driving by continuously monitoring speed, turn radius and the spreader’s position, slowing the vehicle automatically when needed. The manufacturer states that this makes the machine safer to operate without decreasing performance. The company adds that the new wheel set-up on its machines means they can manoeuvre with greatly increased precision and speed. Each wheel can be individually controlled and there are four different steering modes according to the operating situation. Kalmar states that this creates a “radical increase” in agility, enables shorter work cycles, and reduces terminal congestion.