Publications

by Derrick Lind and Jonathan Hsieh
Published in Port Technology International, Fifty Third Edition, Spring 2012

The Panama Canal is being expanded. Jumbo-23 vessels are being constructed. This means larger ship-to-shore cranes will be needed at many terminals. When a crane owner considers his options, he may be concerned that upgrading will not be feasible. However, extreme upgrades are often feasible. This article presents a recent crane upgrade study that included major modifications.

by Erik Soderberg and Derrick Lind
Published in Port Technology International, Fifty Second Edition, Winter 2011

The Panama Canal is being expanded to handle larger ships. This article discusses enlarging existing cranes to handle the larger ships: how much, enlarging methods, conceptual cost and schedule estimates, and other considerations.

by Erik Soderberg and Catherine Morris
Presented by Erik Soderberg at the TOC Americas 2011 Conference in Panama

This presentation addresses three topics. 1) Container crane procurement—a summary of best practices is presented, including detailed technical specifications, design review, fabrication review, seafastening review, offload plan review, and commissioning review. 2) Extending existing crane life—how can the life of existing cranes be extended by maintaining the reliability of the crane, and through practical modifications? 3) The New Panama Canal—we discuss examples of practical crane modifications to service the larger vessels.

by Arun Bhimani
Published in Port Technology International, Forty Seventh Edition, Summer 2010

by Arun Bhimani, Derrick Lind, and Catherine Morris
Presented by Anna Dix, Ports 2010 Conference

With the slowing economy and rising prices of new cranes, renovating existing container handling cranes and bulk handling cranes deserves serious consideration. This paper and presentation presents options and considerations for upgrading and relocating existing cranes.

by Derrick Lind
Published in Port Technology International, Forty First Edition, Spring 2009

Why Modify Existing Cranes?

This article discusses crane modifications often required to service larger vessels, increase productivity, allow for a different terminal operation, or reduce maintenance costs. Modifying existing cranes is a quicker and often a more economical alternative than purchasing new cranes.

by Feroze Vazifdar and Erik Soderberg

Liftech engineers have been mending cranes for over 40 years. A repair must be speedy and cost efficient. This requires experience, creativity, teamwork, and technology. The booklet presents some of Liftech's projects and an overview of the mending process.

by Erik Soderberg
Presented by Erik Soderberg for the BMU, San Francisco, 16th Biennial Marine Seminar

This presentation discusses sea transport options and engineering issues including on and offloading, voyage criteria, voyage forces, and bracing design.

by Feroze Vazifdar and C. Davis Rudolf
Presented at the 2003 TOC Asia in Hong Kong

by Arun Bhimani and Simo Hoite

New cranes are replacing old cranes, especially at the larger and older European, U.S., and Asian ports. Increasingly, these older cranes are put up for sale, and buyers are finding some good bargains. This paper looks at some of the typical characteristics of available used cranes, discusses modification options and their costs, and looks at the issues crane buyers and sellers need to consider when entering the used crane market.

by Michael A. Jordan

Sooner or later, duty cycle container cranes develop fatigue cracks.

This paper explains what is happening to the world's older cranes and what ports must do to deal with the problem.

by Arun Bhimani

Case studies of three crane upgrade and relocation projects demonstrate the practicality and effectiveness of using present cranes in new settings. Procedures for undertaking a crane modification are discussed, and guidelines for the cost are presented.

by Arun Bhimani

Container crane owners and operators often find they must modernize their cranes to keep existing tenants or attract new ones. However, modernizing cranes can be disruptive to the shipping operations. Many owners look for alternates to avoid the disruptions or defer the modernization until a suitable time.

In order to seize an opportunity to expand their business, the Port of Oakland modernized their cranes with minimal disruption to the operator. This paper describes the Oakland project and offers some information that may help you make an objective evaluation of your situation.

by Michael A. Jordan

When operations demand more than an existing dockside container crane can provide, the choices are to buy a new crane or rejuvenate a middle aged one. Which is more profitable? Finding the answer requires investigation and objective evaluation.

This paper offers some information that will help you make your investigation and choose.