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ENGINEERING & EQUIPMENT
New floating barge by E-Crane
The Mama Mobokoli will greatly improve the capacity, efficiency and flexibility of Seaboard’s MIDEMA grain terminal’s ship unloading operations.
The advantage over other floating crane concepts is the fact that the E-Crane’s counterweight moves not only up and down but also back and forward resulting in a very small tipping moment. This means less barge movement and the result is less friction between the floating terminal and the vessel, more precise and faster grab positioning as well as more comfort for the operator and the crew working on board of the floating transfer station. Another advantage of the whole set-up is that the company now owns all the equipment used in its operation, and should things change in the future, it will be able to relocate easily, without having to leave valuable infrastructure behind. A schematic of what Seaboard’s MIDEMA grain terminal ship operation will look like.
MARCH 2008
TAILOR MADE SOLUTIONS The Seaboard Corporation needed a ship-to-shore solution for the discharging of Handy and Handymax vessels with ship-toship and midstream transloading capabilities of breakbulk commmodities on the Congo river in Matadi, Democratic Republic of Congo. As in many ports in Africa there are major port congestion problems. This, combined with the lack of new and reliable dockside equipment, was a major bottleneck in MIDEMA’s grain supply chain. E-Crane promptly started working on the problem and came up with the solution: The Mama Mobokoli (which means “mother that takes care” in one of the local dialects) is a 400 tonnes per hour midstream break bulk transfer station equiped with an E-Crane of 36m outreach and net payload of 8 tonnes. The new floating terminal will greatly improve the capacity, efficiency and flexibility of Seaboard’s MIDEMA grain terminal’s ship unloading operations. Conceptual design studies were carried out in close cooperation with the customer to determine the best floating terminal concept with particular emphasis on the optimum placement of the E-Crane. A winch will be used to manoeuvre the barge, which isn’t self-propelled, between the ship and the shore. The barge will then be used to transfer the grain from the ship into two hoppers from where it will be transported directly to the flourmills by conveyor belt.
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wide. These barge or ship mounted E-Cranes have been developed in close cooperation with the clients. The concept of a floating bulk handling terminal is well suited for both port operations (ship-to-shore) as well as midstream transfer (barge-toship and ship-to-barge). The E-Crane organization is always open minded when it comes to solving its clients special needs and requirements. This famous ‘can-do’ attitude has resulted in ‘cutting edge’ solutions that have successfully served ECrane’s customers worldwide. The development of the E-Crane Floating Bulk Terminal is another logical step in the evolution of this unique material handling The Mama Mobokoli was inaugurated concept. in the Port of Zeebrugge on 22nd Floating transloading of February 2008. terminals address a host of material handling needs that are present in today’s rapidly changing The Mama Mobokoli, designed for Handymax environment. This concept vessels, is fitted with a 1500B-Series E-Crane, with offers the following a lifting capacity of 13.5 tonnes and a grab benefits: capacity of 10m2. The E-Crane also has better filling capacity because the hydraulics make it the complete terminal possible to push down on the material. can be built and tested and The floating terminal was designed and built then floated to its final entirely by E-Crane in Europe. A tugboat will tow destination the barge and reach the client in Matadi after terminal can be located approximately 45 days of towing. at the closest possible location to the mine at the The client’s biggest concern now, after specifics and figures, is preferred transfer point the proper training and education of crane drivers. near the end-user Fortunately the E-Crane team prides itself in making the and all this with limited local regulatory requirements crane driver’s job as simple as possible. Unlike many other crane the complete terminal can be relocated quickly and cost manufacturers, who simply use technology for the sake of effectively if required keeping up with trends, E-Crane believes that computers have to the minimum investment combined with a short delivery time help make life better, not just make it look better while actually provides for an excellent return of investment being more complicated! the option to have a floating buffer storage to smooth out any E-Crane’s main goal, when it comes to the cab, is: peaks and valleys between inbound and outbound material deliveries keep it simple transparency for the cab driver — state of the art technology, electronics, hydraulics and easy serviceability, BUT to the cab “E” FOR EQUILIBRIUM driver it’s just: The “E” in E-Crane stands for Equilibrium. The E-Crane design is two simple joysticks based on an ingenious parallelogram style boom that provides a comfort direct mechanical connection between the counterweight and It’s about productivity, the E-Crane Control System helps, takes the load. This unique system ensures near perfect balance away a lot of the decision making and helps to do the best job throughout its full working range. Compared to conventional possible. cranes that require as much as 80% of their availible energy just to move the boom, stick and grab, the E-Crane principle results in significantly lower maintenance and operational costs. THE E-CRANE FLOATING BULK HANDLING TERMINAL CONCEPT These advantages combined with the state-of-the-art, proven 10 years ago E-Crane delivered the first barge and ship mounted E-Crane technology result in unmatched productivity and an E-Cranes to offload barges and small ships. E-Crane has adapted extremely versatile; fully integrated solution for today's bulk this great concept for the offloading of ships up to Panamaxhandling industries. class and has more than 15 units successfully operating world-