APM Terminals Rotterdam Maasvlakte II has selected 26 Automated Rail Mounted Gantry (ARMG) Cranes and two Rail Cranes from the Austrian crane manufacturer Kuenz.
The selection reflects a comprehensive bidding process designed to find the safest, most efficient, highest productivity cranes for the company’s most advanced, automated container terminal opening in November 2014.
“ We’re designing the terminal of the future to serve the ships of the future. Our customers expect the highest standards in safety, productivity, innovation, automation and eco-friendliness. These ARMGs will be the high performance workhorses of the terminal – capable of supporting the scale of container stack activity associated with multiple large container ships in port. Equally important, the ARMGs are good news for shippers and truckers due to their safety and efficiency ”, stated Frank Tazelaar, Managing Director of APM Terminals Maasvlakte II . The ARMGs will use a fully automated system to safely load/unload a container on a truck chassis. Truck drivers will park their truck in a designated spot, exit their cab and wait in a secure area away from the auto-loading/unloading process.
The ARMGs operate using a terminal operating system and equipment control system. They will lift and stow the containers delivered from the Lift Automated Guided Vehicles (LAGVs) that shuttle containers to and from the berth and rail terminal. Of interest, at night or when the terminal is quiet, the system features a “housekeeping” capability that restows/restacks containers in the best spot for early morning truck appointments or for easy access for the next vessel loadplan. This feature of automated yard optimization of the stack during quiet times allows for better efficiency at peak times.
Intermodal-wise, APM Terminals Maasvlakte II will feature an ondock rail terminal with eight tracks to serve the high volume intermodal cargo to the European hinterland. To deliver the highest efficiency, two Kuenz rail cranes will be used to load and unload trains. The cranes are wide to span eight tracks. The rail cranes will be operated manually by a driver in a cabin but a large part of the activity runs in automated mode. The railcranes are configured for more automation at a later stage.
For both crane types, Kuenz will use ABB as the supplier for the electrical and automation system.
Kuenz, based in Hard, Austria, is an industry leader in intermodal cranes and stacking cranes and will deliver the equipment in 2013 and 2014.
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Dredging Today Staff, June 11, 2012; Image: APM Terminals