Friday, July 13, 2012

New GE technology lifts handling speed of container cranes

The General Electric Company has invented a head block coupling system that allows double hoist ship-to-shore container cranes to carry varied container weights quickly and easily, the company announced Tuesday. The new development will help ports compete in the world of post-Panamax vessels, according to GE.

Under ideal conditions, the new system would double a crane’s cargo handling per shift. Up to four containers with completely different loads will be able to be handled at the same time. Automatic coupling or decoupling of the freely suspended spreaders will be achievable at any time.

Up to now, lifting containers with very different loads led to different rope lengths, resulting in displacement of the head block coupling. GE reports, with the new system, these head block disruptions can be assisted by the drive system using sensor data and real-time controller calculations.

According to the 2011 Drewry report, the global port throughput will reach 1.1 billion TEUs in 2020, compared to the 2010’s 542 million TEUs. Advanced container cranes will be utilized more and more to handle the growing volume of the outsized New Panamax ships with capacities of more than 10,000 TEUs.

The GE head block coupling system is equally suited for every container crane, according to GE.

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