Material or article handling – Marine loading or unloading system – Marine vessel to/from shore
Patent
1997-03-17
1999-09-14
Kramer, Dean
Material or article handling
Marine loading or unloading system
Marine vessel to/from shore
4141399, 4141401, 4141403, 212316, 212325, 212326, B66C 1900, B65G 6300
Patent
active
059512261
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The invention concerns a freight handling plant in depots and related depots, that is, a coordinated arrangement of devices, machines and structures that carry out the loading, unloading, transfer and parking of freight, for example containers, of even 40 tons or more, in maritime, lake and riverside docks, railway goods stations and terrestrial depots in general, both merchant and military; the entire engineering works of the depot that includes the plant also being included in the application for patent rights.
The state of the art, as regards maritime docks which represent the most imposing and exacting of freight handling plants, includes colossal, complex and enormously expensive structures entailing, principally, the construction of breakwaters to protect the docked ships from wave motion and the construction of the mooring wharf, with extremely long construction times and huge investments.
The construction of the said wharf in particular is extremely onerous as well as the thrust of the backfill of the embankment of the dock area--increased by the weight of the stored containers and the weight of the handling machinery, it has to take the dynamic loading caused by the movements of each crane (for example between 700 and 1200 ton or more), loading which can reach 50 ton/m or more, thereby severely stressing the structure of the wharf, considering also that the crane rail has to pass just a few metres from the edge of the wharf itself.
As a result the construction times and costs are extremely onerous, further worsened by the necessity of filling in areas originally occupied by the sea, areas subsequently used for dock services, by transporting backfill from sites in the hinterland: this sometimes requires mountainous terrain to be levelled and, in any case, requires very long works times and entails very high costs, with, furthermore, intolerable delays and danger for traffic.
Furthermore, the management of a container handling plant, wherever it is situated, entails a rather limited productivity because of a series of difficulties associated with traditional structures and plant and their operational cycles.
For example, in maritime docks, the average level of productivity in loading and unloading ships is of between 43 and 54 containers per hour depending on the type of plant, with the movement of the containers by mobile crane being in a direction contained in a vertical plane that passes essentially through the centre line of the boom of the crane itself.
The level of productivity is limited in particular by the transfer logistics currently employed that depends on the type and use of a crane that has boom support stanchions as high as 60 m, moving along the wharf, on a ground level rail track, to each row of containers stowed in the ship, causing very high dynamic loads on the wharf even when crane speeds are rather low.
Furthermore the operator, positioned in a cabin fixed to the upper trolley of the spreader, is made to follow each stressful movement of the trolley itself, from the vertical lifting of each container in the hold to its transfer onto a land based means of transport, the shifts for such an operator being necessarily limited to a few hours.
Furthermore, the use of a mobile crane on a ground level rail track does not permit the precise positioning of the awaiting transport means and constitutes a danger for persons, vehicles and structures on the wharf.
Furthermore, a simultaneous use of lorries and railway carriages, or trolleys, that move on predetermined tracks, to transfer freights to storage areas involves a danger of collision between the lorries and railway carriages or trolleys and causes slowing down in transferring the freights, due to the need of stopping lorries, railway carriages and trolleys in order to avoid collisions.
Such prior art may be subject to considerable improvements with a view to eliminating, or even considerably reducing, the said limitations and drawbacks.
From the foregoing emerges the need to resolve the technical problem of improving handling plants
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Hess Douglas
Josif Albert
Kramer Dean
Modiano Guido
Reggiane S.p.A.
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