Quay move for Felixstowe South cranes

The first three ship-to-shore (STS) gantry cranes have been delivered to the new Felixstowe South development in the UK.

The cranes, the biggest of their type in the world, are capable of handling future generations of container ships carrying 24 containers wide on deck.

Built by Zhenhua Port Machinery Company (ZPMC) of Shanghai and transported fully erect from China, each crane weighs approximately 2,000 tonnes and is capable of lifting two containers simultaneously up to a total of 70 tonnes.

To increase stability of such large cranes, the distance between the waterside and landside legs (the rail gauge) has been increased from the 30 metres at the Port of Felixstowe’s Trinity Terminal to 35 m.

Undergoing a commissioning process before entering service, this will include final installation of local operational and communications systems, as well as checking the full functionality of all the cranes’ systems.

The electrical system is provided by Siemens (Germany) utilising Siemens latest AC electrical drives whilst to assist the crane driver, the cranes are fitted with a ‘Trailer Positioning System’ that recognises the trailer under the crane and aids the truck operator to correctly position the container by means of ground level indication.

They also have ‘Automatic Skew Control’ to correct any skew movement of the spreader caused by wind, vessel cell guides, or load imbalance. A semi-automatic positioning system allows the crane operator to pre-select a ship discharge or loading operation from which the system will automatically calculate and position the crane with an optimised path and with anti-sway control.

Commenting on their arrival, David Gledhill, CEO of Hutchison Ports (UK) Limited, owners of the Port of Felixstowe, said, “With the first of the quayside cranes on site Felixstowe South is quickly becoming a reality.”

“We recently took delivery of the first batch of yard cranes and the main work on the quay wall is complete, with the fenders now being fitted. We are making good progress laying the 19 million concrete blocks that will make up the storage yard area and will have everything in place to handle the first trial vessels later this year.”

“It was only a few years ago that we saw the first 10,000 teu ship enter service but within the next few years there will be over 100 of these massive ships on the major trade routes. It is essential for UK shippers and receivers that we have the facilities to accommodate these mega-ships and Felixstowe South gives us that,” he said.
(Source:www.container-mag.com)