Delft University of Technology
Faculty Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering Transport Technology
W.J.G. Kuipers Ontwerp platform-layout voor afhandeling van Jumbo Container vessels 2 dln. Masters thesis, Report 96.3.TT.4791, Transport Engineering and Logistics.
The developments on the container-market point out that within a few years, very large containervessels up to 8000 TEU will be put into service, which vessels are called Jumbo Container Vessels (JSC's). Because it is of great importance for the container-lines around the world that these vessels are handled within 24 hours, its necessary to develop the Jumbo Service Centre (JSC). The JSC will be operating logistically independent from the motherstack and the JSC will be situated on a platform at twenty meters above waterlevel. On this plateau horizontal transport of containers will be by AGV's on rails. Between the motherstack and the quay-crane, a buffer will be situated on the platform. The platformstack guarantees that the quay-crane can load or unload up to 60 containers an hour. By applying six quay-cranes to one JCV, this JCV will be handled within 24 hours.
In this study, first three questions are discussed: why on rails, why an platformstack and why at a level of twenty meters? Several layouts of the
platformstack have been worked out of which the best has been chosen. These layouts are evaluated on three aspects: technical aspects, operational costs and investments. The best layout appears to be the layout with a minimum of switches, a relatively small plateau and a overhead-crane which serves the platformstack.
With this layout a handling-strategy for the platformstack is developed. With this strategy half an hour of stagnation in transport between the motherstack and the plateau can be met. The motherstack has a window of 40 minutes in handling a container to or from the JSC.
A functional design is made of the overhead-crane which serves the platformstack. The operational requirements of the overhead-crane appear to be not very exceptional. Most parts of the overhead-crane are standard parts.
This study has shown that the JSC as proposed appears to be technically feasible, supposed that the AGV on rails will be feasible as well. Reports on Transport Engineering and Logistics (in Dutch)
