Argentine terminal opts for E-Crane

In early 2013, Terminal 6 S.A in Argentina placed an order for a new 1500 Series, Model 11264 PD-E E-Crane with 26,4 m (86.5 ft) outreach and a lift capacity of 19 Mtons (20.9 UStons) to unload soy beans from Mississippi and Paraná sized barges onto a conveyer system.

Largest soya meal exporting company

Terminal 6 S.A. is a joint venture between Bunge, and Aceitera General Deheza. It was founded in 1985 and has grown to become the largest soya meal exporting terminal in Argentina. The terminal also ships and handles grains and vegetable oils, along with other dry agribulk. Terminal 6 S.A. is Argentina’s first private port, and has the facilities to store up to 950 thousand tons of dry bulk materials as well as 110 thousand tons of liquid materials.

Terminal 6 S.A. began talks with E-Crane about a potential project on the Paraná river back in 2007 with a goal of increasing the productivity and capacity of their port. The soy beans were originally unloaded using a cable crane and a small material handler. Each machine was achieving a production rate of about 400 tph. Terminal 6 S.A. considered many different material handling options, but ultimately chose the E-Crane to maximize their operation. The cable crane will be removed, and the new E-Crane will be installed in its place. The E-Crane will be pedestal mounted directly onto a new addition to the existing dock. An unloading rate exceeding 900 tph is expected.

Why Terminal 6 chose the E-Crane

Terminal 6 S.A. realized the benefits of the equilibrated crane’s efficient design. The E-Crane is a truly unique and revolutionary machine with the lowest power consumption cost in the industry. It runs on clean electric energy, saving customers huge amounts of money when compared to diesel powered equipment. There are also very little associated maintenance costs due to E-Crane’s innate design.

Design of the original balanced crane

The key to the E-Crane’s efficiency is the parallelogram design linking the stick to the moving counterweight. This unique 4-bar mechanism ensures that the E-Crane remains in near perfect balance throughout its working range. Compared to conventional cranes that require as much as 80% of their available energy just to move the boom, stick, and grab, the E-Crane allows gravity to work for you instead of against you, reducing horsepower requirements and power consumption by up to 50%, reducing maintenance and operating costs.

Proven Solution for Bulk Handling

Designed specifically for barge and ship unloading, E-Crane is a proven and trusted solution in many bulk material handling industries. Most dedicated systems for offloading grain, coal, limestone and other bulk materials are costly, inflexible and require an expensive, hard to maintain infrastructure. The versatile, flexible E-Crane is just the opposite. E-Crane’s modular design and custom solutions make it the ideal equipment for any bulk handling application. E-Crane is purpose built for dedicated tasks including:

• Offloading Panamax/Handymax Sized Vessels
• Barge Loading/Unloading
• Ship Loading/Unloading
• Feeding Hoppers
• Stockpiling

Turnkey Bulk Material Handling Solution

E-Crane offers more than just the crane. Turnkey bulk material handling solutions are offered in order to optimize the entire port operation. E-Crane streamlines the facility by working with the customer to provide other services and equipment including stationary or linked hoppers, barges and barge haul systems. For handling dry bulk materials such as coal, limestone, bauxite, fertilizer, grain, cement clinker and coke, E-Crane is the ideal solution.

Source: Dry Cargo International, March issue 2013