SSG No 20 - Shipgaz

POrts & maritime lOGistiCs
to Delta terminal some lessons were incorporated.
With Hutchinson’s involvement
in Euromax, you could say they have a real
chance to reap the full benefits, because
the technology has already changed so
much since ECT was first envisaged. What
hasn’t changed perhaps with Euromax is
the excessive optimism among operators,
that these highly complicated IT-based
projects will actually be completed on time
or even within budget”.
Getting faster
According to Remmelt Thijs, project manager
with the logistics and simulation consultancy
TBA, the technological advances
have been considerable on both the terminal
and horizontal sides.
“Originally ECT had a single crane per
stack where other systems now have three
or four, which of course allows for much
higher performance”.
Thijs also points out that the AGV component
has also changed considerably:
“ECT’s AGVs deliver with much slower
speeds than we now aim for, some three or
four metres per second as opposed to the
present six metres per second. Machines
have also become faster in acceleration and
more flexible in terms of the curves that
can be taken”.
Recent advances, says Thijs, lie in the
improved control systems running the fleet
of AGVs. To control its terminal stacking
ECT has migrated from its home-built soft-
ware to a terminal operational programme
from Navis, who are doing the same installations
at Euromax. The AGV software
however remains home grown. Euromax
and Hamburg’s CTA’s designs both benefit
from the experience of ECT not least in
the better holding areas beneath the backreach
of the ship-to-shore cranes and the
implementation of more than a single set
route from the terminal to the vessel side.
Anecdotes abound
Anecdotes abound of the early days of
AGV operations in Rotterdam, most
famously of how the vehicles would come
to an emergency stop when seagulls landed
on their sensitive yellow bumpers. This in
turn caused a blockage which snarled up
AGV traffic behind it. Indeed the constraint
has always been on the power of the
software to handle the likes of safe interval
management between vehicles and the ability
to automatically isolate an area when a
breakdown or other obstruction blocks one
of the buried sensor routes. ECT planners
also learnt that they needed more space in
which to hold AGVs and that their initial
queue design was inadequate. In addition
they introduced remote control to restart
or move stalled equipment.
Cannot compete yet
“Unfortunately I think it is a fact that today
none of these automated terminals can yet
match the performance or productivity on
kalmar industries
the vessel side of the comparable manual
terminals, even in high labour cost areas
like Western Europe and North America
vessel productivity is the key when terminals
are attracting shipping lines and automated
terminals have not done so well in
that respect”, says Jari Pirhonen.
Complex demands
The reason in his view is the sheer complexity
of demands made upon an automated
operating system with the considerable
number of exceptions that the computer
must handle.
“In a busy terminal you have multiple
cranes on one vessel and a lot of equipment
serving those cranes. The manual
operation still proves to be more efficient
because the driver is a bit smarter than the
computer when it comes to working in a
confined area with multiple cranes”, says
Jari Pirhonen.
Pirhonen does not however doubt that
horizontal automation will become both
as productive if not more productive than
manual labour and also therefore more
cost-effective. It is this assumption which
caused Kalmar this summer to buy Dutch
terminal software provider ACT whose
products include AGV navigation systems.
Hybrid solution
At present says Pirhonen, the hybrid solution
with automatic stacking and the manual
feed is more efficient because it is less
complex. Unlike horizontal movements
there is a far higher level of predictability
using rail-mounted gantry cranes. Kalmar
is now delivering the first of 87 automatic
stacking frames to Hamburg’s Container
Terminal Burchardkai (CTB) as as part of
a ten year programme to convert from
straddle carriers. The project will give the
terminal operators HHLA the ability to
stack one over five. To keep disruption
to port operations to a minimum CTB’s
stacking yard will continue to be operated
with straddle carriers until each is replaced
by an automated crane. The new installations
will however continue to be served
by manually-operated straddle carriers. The
impact of automated stacking on storage
density compared with the two or three box
heights of manually operated cranes can
be dramatic. TBA’s Thijs points out that
terminals should not be designed for 100
per cent utilisation. Empty space is always
needed for discharged cargoes before loading
can begin. Depending on the system
40 sCandinaVian sHiPPinG GaZette • OCtOBer 26, 2007