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CARGO HANDLING
WorldCargo
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Spreaders split the difference
W
hile the overall crane market lift spreader integrated with the crane and capacity on the ropes should be a mini- celeration. However, high top speed and
looks set to contract this year, using separate drives or a specially linked mum of 95t although 100t is preferred. fast acceleration are not now considered
the market for yard crane and dual hoist gearbox, Stinis approached the The four new Liebherr “megamax” cranes so important. This is partly because tan-
mobile plant spreaders is still relatively problem from the other angle and has ordered by Gulftainer for Khorfakkan, dem lifting increases productivity and
buoyant. Leading manufacturers such as developed a design capable of being em- which are purpose-designed for tandem partly because of the problems associated
RAM Spreaders, Elme and Bromma are ployed on a “standard” crane, albeit one lifts and will be equipped with Bromma with imposing high acceleration loads on
Bromma reported record sales in 2008. This
experiencing high levels of enquiries; for that requires certain features beyond a Tandem 40 spreaders, are rated at 115t rope loads of 100t and controlling such a
is a type YSX 40E yard crane spreader
Bromma this comes on the back of a normal crane specification. on the ropes. Hoist power, however, is mass at high speeds. weight is stated to be around 1800t. This
record 2008, when it says it sold more However, these upgrades are not ex- relatively modest at 2 x 600 kW, com- would be more than sufficient to provide
spreaders than in any previous year. pensive at the crane design stage and in pared to 2 x 1300 kW for the first gen- High ratings a stable platform for tandem lifts, where
Bromma experienced a strong 4Q fact some are tending to be fitted in any eration tandem lift ZPMC cranes at DPW Even cranes intended for non-tandem Stinis considers 1400t to be acceptable.
performance with demand in all sectors, case, such as a high speed CANbus, Jebel Ali and (reportedly) 4 x 750 kW for operation are being specified with higher Additionally, for SSH operation, the
but particularly in yard crane applications. Ethernet or Profibus crane data system the latest ones at Antwerp Gateway lift capacities. The latest 62m outreach crane should ideally be fitted with
New contracts placed for the Port of Sa- with which the SSH can communicate. The higher power ratings were speci- ZPMC cranes for MCT Gioia Tauro are 1100mm outside diameter sheaves and
vannah, for example, added 26 YTR40 The main requirement is that crane fied to achieve high hoist speeds and ac- rated at 95t on the ropes, while crane 30mm diameter rope instead of the more
and YTR45 twin lift spreaders to the or-
der intake, while the Port of Felixstowe
ordered 22 all-electric yard spreaders dur-
ing the final months of 2008.
The popularity of Bromma’s all-elec-
tric “Greenline” yard crane spreaders is
now such that they outsold the more tra-
ditional hydraulic spreaders for the first
time during 2008. New orders came from
Kumport and from operators in Livorno,
Nansha, Alexandria, Northport Klang,
Sharjah and Khorfakkan.
Gulftainer, which operates both the
latter facilities on behalf of Sharjah Port
Authority, also contracted for four Tan-
dem 40 spreaders for use on new Liebherr
cranes for Khorfakkan. It also ordered
STS45 separating twin lift spreaders, as
did terminals in Jeddah, New York,
Kaohsiung, Rotterdam, Southampton,
Fremantle, Sydney, Dakar and Valencia.
Bromma is also continuing work on it
all-electric separating yard spreader and
an order for one such unit, (a YTS45E)
has come from the Port of Tianjin.
Enter the SSH
With a tightening economic climate and
a decline in container volumes traded,
resulting in a slowdown in container ter-
minal investments, now may not the best
time to promote a concept to increase
container handling productivity.
However, as Stinis points out, its pat-
ented Stinis Split Headblock (SSH) de-
sign has been under development since
2001. The company took the view that it
could not market a complex engineering
design (albeit based on a simple concept)
without intensive R&D followed by thor-
ough and extensive on-site testing.
Taking a simple concept of employ-
ing a “conventional” hoist system with a
standard hoist configuration for a tandem
lift and turning it into a practical solu-
tion requires heavy investment.
Stinis puts its R&D costs at around
€3.5M, including the initial prototype
tests at APM Terminals in Rotterdam fol-
lowed by field tests at the DPW Antwerp
Gateway and PSA HNN terminals in
Antwerp, while the software programs
took over a year to write and perfect. This
is a heavy investment for a relatively small,
privately-owned engineering company.
Spin-offs
There has been some spin-off from the
development for conventional spreaders,
such as a spring-loaded pulley block
mounting to ensure the hoist rope remains
in line with the sheave during emergency
conditions, mainly snag at one end. This
prevents the rope from kinking and thus
increases rope life. It also allows the hoist
ropes to be changed without the awk-
ward and time-consuming procedure of
removing the sheaves.
For an existing crane that meets the
basic SSH specification requirements,
Stinis indicates that the cost of the actual
SSH unit, inclusive of crane modifications,
cab controls, software and hardware plus
one to two months on location, would
be around €350,000. For a new, purpose-
built crane, the figure should be lower.
Two lightweight Stinis Long-Twin
spreaders would be a further investment
of around €320,000, taking the total in-
vestment for a tandem lift operation - ena-
bling the crane to lift between one and
four 20fts (or two 40/45fts) in a single
cycle - to around €670,000, not count-
ing driver training costs.
Flexible approach
Instead of developing a dedicated tandem
February 2009 37
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