The crane thinks for itself

The towering portal crane “LK 24 G” rolls in majestically, like a giant steel gate on rails. Its gripping mechanism, the so-called spreader, lowers itself down on steel cables fully automatically to a reddish-orange 20-foot container. It precisely meets the steel box that has just been retrieved from the container rail terminal and set down by the driver of a straddle carrier. From here, the LK 24 G takes over. It’s easy to remember what this abbreviation stands for: “storage crane from block 24, large” (translated from German).

“G” is actually the largest of three portal cranes that simultaneously serve the newest storage block 24. The computer-controlled crane will place the orange container into one of the continuous rows of stacked boxes. The largely automated warehouse crane system (LKS or block storage) is taking over the majority of the container storage process at HHLA Container Terminal Burchardkai (CTB). It lies exactly between the port of Waltershof, with its enormous moored container ships, and the container rail terminal, one of the largest in Europe. There are also lanes for trucks onshore. Up to 2,100 TEU fit in each of the blocks, of which there are currently 19. One TEU is equivalent to one 20-foot container.

Blocks 21 to 24 were commissioned in the course of 2023. In principle, it was a matter of plug and play: they were tested, approved and put into operation . The expansion of the blocks is by now routine. Since the first block (which was assigned number 6) went into operation at Burchardkai 2011, the process has been perfectly rehearsed by everyone involved.

The four new blocks alone represent increased capacity of approximately 8,500 TEU, so that the CTB now has enough space for 39,000 TEU. With the expansion of the LKS, the terminal’s efficiency of space increased by more than 30 percent. This is particularly important in the Port of Hamburg, where space is scarce and every square metre is especially costly.

The purchase of the four new blocks brings environmental as well as logistical advantages. HHLA wants to increase not just spatial efficiency but energy efficiency in the Port of Hamburg, and to thereby drastically reduce the use of fossil fuels and the emission of CO₂. The Group has set itself the goal of being completely climate-neutral by 2040.

The expansion of block storage is creating important prerequisites for this. Since they can be operated on green electricity, fewer and fewer of the diesel-powered straddle carriers that are still currently widely used will be needed at Burchardkai. Through this measure alone, more than 11,000 tonnes of CO₂ are expected to be saved. The CTB is thus on track to receive a certificate for climate neutrality: HHLA Terminal Altenwerder (CTA) already has such a label. With this in mind, CTB’s project for storage blocks 21 to 24 is being subsidised by Hamburg’s Ministry for Environment, Climate, Energy and Agriculture (BUKEA)with ten million euros from special European Union funds.

In the future, the majority of truck containers will also be handled automatically by the system. The main advantage of automated crane operation compared with manual steering lies in its “largely constant and predictable results”, says Johann Bergmann from the Fraunhofer Center for Maritime Logistics and Services CML in Hamburg. The port technology expert adds: “Since work breaks during changes in crane operators or shifts are a non-issue, the crane’s productive operating time is significantly increased.”

Whatever the future holds, the terminal can hardly be in a better position: it has one highly automated block storage unit, three drive-over cranes per block, up to six boxes can be stacked on top of one another, and everything is in its optimal storage space thanks to AI. Johann Bergmann, the Fraunhofer expert for port technologies, thinks HHLA’s established innovation leadership at Burchardkai could also be of interest to terminal operators elsewhere in the world: “The transfer of this concept to other container terminals that require high block storage productivity is conceivable.”

Published 22.6.2023