Containers have standardized sizes. They can be loaded and unloaded, folded, transported efficiently over long distances and transferred from one mode of transport to another - and semi-trailers - without opening. The processing system is fully mechanized, so all processing is carried out using cranes and special forklifts. All containers are numbered and tracked using computerized systems.

Container trains on the West Coast Main Line near Nuneaton

Containerization originated several centuries ago, but was not well developed or widely used until World War II, the post-war boom in international trade and has become one of the main elements of globalization. Containerization has done away with the manual sorting of most shipments and the need for warehousing. This displaced many thousands of dockworkers who used to work. Containerization also reduced congestion at ports, significantly reduced shipping times, and reduced losses from damage and theft.

Containers can be made from weathering steel to minimize maintenance needs.

Sea container ship near Cuxhaven

Before containerization, goods were typically handled by hand as bulk cargo. Typically, goods were loaded onto a vehicle from the factory and taken to a port, where they were unloaded and stored awaiting the next ship. When the ship arrived, they were moved to the side of the ship along with other cargo, which was lowered or carried into the hold and packed by dock workers.

The ship had to contact several ports before discharging a single cargo load. Each port visit delayed the delivery of another cargo. The delivered cargo could then be unloaded into another warehouse before being transported to its destination. Repeated processing and delays made transport expensive, time-consuming and unreliable.

Containerization has its origins in the early coal mining regions of England, beginning in the late 18th century. In 1766 James Brindley developed boat boat"Starvationer" with 10 wooden containers for transporting coal from Worsley Delph (quarry) to Manchester via the Bridgewater Canal. In 1795, Benjamin Outram opened the small Eaton Passage, which carried coal in wagons built on his Butterley Ironworks. Horse-drawn wheeled carriages at the meal took the form of containers which, loaded with coal, were transferred from canal barges onto the Derby Canal.

By the 1830s railways on several continents they transported containers that could be transferred to other modes of transport. The Liverpool and Manchester Railway in the United Kingdom was one of them.

“Simple rectangular wooden boxes, four to a wagon, they were used to transport coal from the Lancashire collieries to Liverpool, where they were hauled onto horse-drawn carts by crane.”

Originally used to move coal to and from barges, "loose boxes" were used to containerize coal from the late 1780s in places like the Bridgewater Canal. By the 1840s, iron boxes were used as well as wooden ones. In the early 1900s, enclosed container ships were adopted to operate between road and rail transport.

Moving freight containers on the London, Midland and Scottish Railway, 1928

On May 17, 1917, Benjamin Franklin Fitch opened an experimental plant for the transfer of containers, called swap bodies, based on his own design in Cincinnati, Ohio, in the United States. His system was later expanded in 1919 to over 200 containers serving 21 railway stations with 14 trucks.

Before World War II, many European countries independently developed container systems.

In 1919, engineer Stanislaw Rodowicz developed the first container system project in Poland. In 1920, he built a prototype of a two-axle carriage. The Polish-Bolshevik War stopped the development of the container system in Poland.

The United States Post Office entered into a contract with the New York Central Railroad to forward mail via containers in May 1921. In 1930, the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad began shipping containers between Chicago and Milwaukee. However, their efforts ended in the spring of 1931 when the Interstate Commerce Commission did not allow a flat rate for containers.

Loading platform at the Bochum-Dalhausen railway museum, with four different UIC-590 containers

In 1926, a regular luxury passenger train service from London to Paris, the Golden Arrow/Fleche d'Or, Southern Railway and Northern Railway, began. Four containers were used to transport passengers' luggage. These containers were loaded in London or Paris and transported to the ports of Dover or Calais by flatcars in the UK and "CIWL Pullman Golden Arrow Fourgon CIWL" in France.

At the Second World Road Transport Congress in Rome, September 1928, Italian Senator Silvio Crespi proposed the use of containers for road and rail transport. transport systems, using cooperation rather than competition.

This would be done under the auspices of an international body similar to the Sleeping Machine Company, which provided international transportation passengers in sleeping cars.

In 1928, the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) began regular container service in the northeastern United States. After the Wall Street Crash of 1929 in New York and the subsequent Great Depression, many countries had no Vehicle for cargo. Railroads were sought as an opportunity to transport goods, and the opportunity arose to bring containers to wider use. Under the auspices of the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris, practical tests were carried out in Venice on September 30, 1931, on one of the platforms of the Marine Station (Mol di Ponente) to evaluate better design European containers as part of an international competition.

That same year, in 1931, in the United States, Benjamin Franklin Fitch developed two of the largest and heaviest containers in existence anywhere at that time. One measured 17'6" by 8'0" by 8'0" with a capacity of 30,000 pounds in 890 cubic feet, and the second measured 20'0" by 8'0" by 8'0", with a capacity of 50,000 pounds in 1000 cubic feet.

The world's first PRR Pennsylvania Railroad was opened in Enola in November 1932. The Fitch interception system was used to tranship containers.

The development of containerization was created in Europe and the US as a way to revitalize railway companies after the Wall Street Crash of 1929, which led to economic collapse and a decline in the use of all modes of transport

In 1933, the International Chamber of Commerce was created in Europe (French: Bureau International des Conteneurs, BIC). In June 1933, the BIC decided on mandatory parameters for containers used in international traffic. Containers handled by lifting mechanisms such as cranes, overhead conveyors, etc. for mobile elevators (Group I containers) built after July 1, 1933.

Malcolm McLean on the railing, Port Newark, 1957

From 1926 to 1947 in the United States, the Chicago North Shore and Milwaukee Railroad transported vehicles for vehicles and trucks loaded on flat cars between Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Chicago, Illinois. Beginning in 1929, Seatrain Lines carried railroad cars on their seagoing vessels to transport freight between New York and Cuba.

In the mid-1930s, the Chicago Great Western Railroad and later the New Haven Railroad began "piggyback" services (transporting freight vans on flat cars) limited to their own railroads. Chicago's Great Western Railroad filed a U.S. federal patent in 1938 for their method of attaching each trailer to a flat car using chains and turnbuckles. Other components included wheel chocks and ramps for loading and unloading trailers from platforms. By 1953, the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy, Chicago and Eastern Illinois and Southern Pacific railroads had joined in the innovation. Most of the cars used redundant platforms with new decks. By 1955, 25 more railroads had begun some form of piggyback trailers.

The Second World War

During World War II, the Australian Army used containers to better cope with track breaks on the railways. These non-stacking containers were the size of the later 20ft ISO container and may have been made primarily of wood.

At the same time, the United States Army began combining items of similar size by stacking them on a pallet, consolidating cargo to speed up the loading and unloading of transport ships. In 1947, the Transportation Corps

developed Conveyor, a rigid, corrugated steel container with a 9,000 lb (4.1 t) capacity for transporting officer household items in the field.

It was 8'6" long, 6'3" wide and 6'10" tall (2.59 x 1.91 x 2.08 m), with double doors at one end mounted on skids and having lifting rings on the top four corners. During the Korean War, the Transporter was evaluated for handling sensitive military equipment and, having proven its effectiveness, was approved for wider use. The theft of material and damage to wooden crates convinced the Army of the need to use steel containers.

Mid-twentieth century

In April 1951 at railway station Zurich Tiefenbrunnen Swiss Museum of Transport and International Container Bureau(BIK) conducted demonstrations of container systems in order to select the best solution for Western Europe. Representatives from France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Great Britain, Italy and the United States took part.

The system chosen for Western Europe was based on the Dutch consumer goods and waste transport system called Laadkisten(literally "loading bunkers"), which were in use since 1934. This system used roller containers that moved by rail, truck and ship in various configurations up to 5,500 kg (12,100 lb) and up to 3.1 x 2.3 x 2 meters.

This became the first point of the European World War II railway station UIC 590, known as "pa-Behälter". It was implemented in the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, West Germany, Switzerland, Sweden and Denmark. With the popularization of larger ISO containers, support for pa containers was gradually phased out by railroads. In the 1970s they became widely used for transporting waste.

In 1952 american army developed Transporter into container or express – CONEX system boxes. The size and capacity of the Conex was about the same as the Transporter, but the system was made modular, adding a smaller half size of 6'3" long, 4'3" wide and 6'10½". CONEXes can be stacked three high and protect their contents from the elements.

First large batch of CONEXes containing technical materials and spare parts, was produced by rail from Columbus General Depot in Georgia to the Port of San Francisco, and then by ship to Yokohama, Japan, and then Korea in late 1952; Shipment time almost doubled. By the time of the Vietnam War, most supplies and materials were shipped to CONEX. By 1965, the US military was using approximately 100,000 Conex boxes and more than 200,000 in 1967, making this the first worldwide use of intermodal containers. After the US Department of Defense standardized the 8' x 10' cross container for military use, it was quickly adopted for shipping purposes.

In 1955 former owner cargo company Malcom McLean worked with engineer Keith Tantlinger to develop the modern .

The challenge was to design for transport that could be loaded onto ships efficiently and held securely on long sea voyages.

The result was a wide-angle square, 8 feet (2.4 m) wide by 8 feet (2.4 m) by 10 feet (3.0 m), constructed from 2.5 mm (0.098 in) thick corrugated steel. The design included a twistlock mechanism at each of the four corners, allowing the container to be easily secured and lifted using cranes. Helping McLean create successful design Tantlinger convinced him to provide patented designs for industry; this began the international standardization of shipping containers.

Target vessels

The first container-carrying vessels began operating in 1926 as a regular luxury passenger train service between London and Paris, the Golden Arrow/Fleche d'Or. Four containers were used to transport passengers' luggage. These containers were loaded into London or Paris and delivered to the ports of Dover or Calais.

The next step was in Europe after World War II. Vessels designed to transport containers were used between the UK and the Netherlands and also in Denmark in 1951. In the United States, ships began carrying containers in 1951 between Seattle, Washington, and Alaska.

However, none of these services were particularly successful. First, the containers were quite small, with 52% of them having a volume of less than 3 cubic meters (106 cu ft). Almost all European containers were made of wood and used canvas, and they needed additional loading [into railway or truck bodies.

The world's first purpose-built container ship was Clifford J. Rodgers, built in Montreal in 1955 and owned by White Pass and Yukon Corporation. His first trip consisted of 26 containers between North Vancouver, British Columbia and Skagway, Alaska on November 26, 1955. in Skagway, the containers were unloaded into specially built railcars for transport north to the Yukon, the first service using trucks, ships and wagons. Southbound were loaded by shippers in the Yukon and moved by rail, ship and truck to consignees without opening. This first intermodal system operated from November 1955 to 1982.

The first truly successful container shipping company dates back to April 26, 1956, when the American truck truck McLean sent van trailers later named containers on board the converted tanker SS Ideal X and shipped them from Newark, New Jersey to Houston, Texas.

Regardless of events in Canada, McLean had the idea of ​​using large containers that were never opened in transit and that could be transferred intermodally among trucks, ships and railcars. McLean's initial preference was to build "trailers"—trailers off large trucks and stow them on a cargo ship.

This stowage method, called roll-on/roll-off, was not adopted due to the large amount of waste in the potential cargo space on board the ship, known as broken stowage. Instead, McLean changed his original concept to loading only ships, not chassis, onto the ship; hence the designation "container ship" or "box" ship. (See also van van and cart and truck).

Container Standards

Maersk Line containers in 1975.

During the first 20 years of containerization, many container sizes and corner fittings were used; There were dozens of incompatible container systems in the United States. Among the largest operators, Matson Navigation had a fleet of 24-foot (7.32 m) containers, while Sea-Land Service, Inc used 35-foot (10.67 m) containers.

Keppel Container Terminal in Singapore

The standard sizes and standards for installation and reinforcement that currently exist arose as a result of a series of compromises between international shipping lines, European railroads, U.S. railroads, and American trucking companies. Four important ISO (International Organization for Standardization) recommendations have standardized containerization around the world:

• January 1968: ISO 668 defined terminology, dimensions and ratings.
• July 1968: R-790 identified identification markings.
• January 1970: R-1161 made recommendations regarding corner fittings.
• October 1970: R-1897 set out the minimum internal dimensions of general purpose cargo containers.

Based on these standards, the first TEU container ship was Japanese de: Hakone Maru from shipowner NYK, which began sailing in 1968 and could carry 752 TEU containers.

In the United States, containerization and other advances in shipping were hampered by the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC), which was created in 1887 to prevent railroads from exploiting monopolistic pricing policy and rate discrimination, but became victims of regulatory capture.

By the 1960s, ICC approval was required before any shipper could transport various items in the same vehicle or change fares. Fully integrated systems in the United States today became possible only after the ICC's regulatory oversight was reduced (and abolished in 1995); freight and rail services were abolished in the 1970s, and shipping rates were deregulated in 1984.

In the United States, double railway transport with a double stack in which the containers were stacked by two high-speed wagons.

The concept was developed by the Marine and Southern Pacific Railroad. The first self-contained two-post container vehicle (or two-post 40-foot COFC vehicle) was delivered in July 1977.

The 5-cell car, the industry standard, debuted in 1981. Initially, these double-staff railway cars were deployed on regular railway service. Since American Presidential Lines initiated dedicated two-rack container service between Los Angeles and Chicago in 1984, traffic volumes have increased rapidly.

Effects

Containerization has significantly reduced the costs and increased the speed of delivery, especially for consumer goods and commodities. It also dramatically changed the character of port cities around the world. Before highly mechanized container shipping, crews of 20-22 stevedores collected individual cargoes into the ship's hold. With container shipping, port facilities no longer require large crews of stevedores and the profession has changed dramatically.

Meanwhile, the port facilities needed to support container shipping have changed. One consequence was the decline of some ports and the growth of others. At the Port of San Francisco, the former piers used for loading and unloading were no longer needed, but there was little space to create huge container shipping yards. As a result, the port of San Francisco virtually ceased to function as a major commercial port, but the neighboring port of Oakland became the second largest on the West Coast of the United States. A similar fate met the connection between the ports of Manhattan and New Jersey.

In the United Kingdom, the Port of London and the Port of Liverpool have declined significantly. Meanwhile, the Port of Felixstowe and the Port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands became the main ports. In general, inland ports on waterways unable to deep-sea ship movement projects have also abandoned containerization in favor of seaports. With intermodal containers, the work of sorting and packing containers can be done away from the landing site.

The effects of containerization quickly spread beyond the shipping industry. Containers have been quickly adopted by the shipping and rail transport industries for freight transport, not related to maritime transport. Manufacturing has also evolved to adapt to the use of containers.

Companies that once shipped small shipments began grouping them into containers. Many cargoes are now destined specifically for containers. Container reliability was also a just-in-time move, made possible because component suppliers could supply specific components on regular, fixed schedules.

Twenty first century

Maersk Virginia departs from Fremantle, Australia

As of 2009, approximately 90% of unsold cargo worldwide moves in stacked containers. transport ships; 26% of all container transhipment takes place in China. For example, in 2009, there were 105,976,701 transhipments in China (both international and coastal, excluding Hong Kong), 21,040,096 in Hong Kong (which are listed separately), and only 34,295,572 in the United States.

In 2005, approximately 18 million containers made more than 200 million trips per year. Some ships can carry more than 14,500 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU), such as Emma Mærsk, 396 m (1,299 ft) long, launched August 2006. It has been predicted that at some point container ships will be limited in size only by the depth of the Straits of Malacca, one of the world's busiest shipping lanes, linking the Indian Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. This so-called Malacmaxax size limits the ship to 470 m (1,542 ft) long and 60 m (197 ft) wide.

However, few initially foresaw the extent of the impact containerization would have on the shipping industry. In the 1950s, Harvard University economist Benjamin Chinitz predicted that containerization would benefit

New York, allowing it to ship its manufactured goods more cheaply to the southern parts of the United States than to other areas, but it did not anticipate that containerization could make it cheaper for it to import such goods from abroad.

Most economic studies of container shipping have assumed that shipping companies will begin to replace older forms of transportation with containers, but have not predicted that the process of containerization itself will have a more direct impact on producers' choices and increase overall trade volume.

The widespread use of standard ISO containers led to changes in other shipping standards, gradually displacing swap bodies or truck bodies into standard sizes and shapes (though without the strength required for stowage) and completely changing the worldwide use of freight pallets that fit into ISO containers or into commercial vehicles.

Improved cargo security is also an important benefit of container shipping. Once the cargo is loaded into the container, it is not touched until it reaches its destination. The cargo is not visible to the casual viewer and is therefore unlikely to be stolen; Container doors are usually sealed, so tampering is more obvious. Some containers are equipped with electronic controls and can be controlled remotely to change the air pressure that occurs when the doors are open. This has reduced thefts that have long plagued the shipping industry. Latest Developments were focused on using intelligent logistics optimization to further improve safety.

Using the same basic container sizes around the world has reduced problems caused by incompatible rail wheel sizes in different countries. Most of the world's railway networks operate on 1435 mm (4 ft – 1/2 in) gauge known as standard gauge, but many countries (such as Russia, India, Finland and Lithuania) use wider gauges, while many others Africa and South America use narrower sensors in their networks. Usage container trains in all these countries facilitates the transfer of different sensors between different trains.

Red cargo container 40 feet long

Containers have become a popular way to ship private cars and other vehicles overseas using 20 or 40 foot containers. Unlike roll-on/roll-off vehicles, personal effects can be loaded into the vehicle's container, allowing you to move around the world with ease.

For a landlubber this is an incredibly impressive sight. An angry ocean, throwing high walls of boiling white foam onto the shore, clouds of humid darkness overhead, and somewhere nearby a man-made mountain rising above the water. A giant container ship leaving the port waters seems motionless and unshakable in the face of the elements. This is, of course, an illusion. The elements can be stronger...

Giant container ships, reaching a length of almost four hundred meters, are among the most big cars created by mankind. However, such sizes are not the result of gigantomania, but a consequence of economic necessity. It is cheaper to transport cargo in large quantities.

Oleg Makarov

Among the main symbols of modern consumer society, of course, there is a place for one of the largest machines created by mankind. Vessels of the VLCS class (ultra-large container ships) can reach almost four hundred meters in length, competing in size with supertankers. But if the economic viability of using huge ships to transport oil is in question these days, container ships are only growing in size, perhaps approaching the limit imposed by technical limitations.

Actually, the idea of ​​container shipping was born from the obvious advantages of using standard containers. Perhaps the first such container at sea was an ordinary barrel, in which gunpowder, wine, and corned beef could be placed. At the same time, the barrels were perfectly stored in the holds and, thanks to the dome-shaped sides, could be installed in several tiers without collapsing. Despite the antiquity of the idea, the history of modern container transportation began relatively recently - almost 60 years ago.

Global intermodality

The world economy of the early 1950s can be called an economy locally produced. Of course, fossil or food raw materials, if they were not at hand, had to be transported from afar - by tankers or dry cargo ships. But it seemed completely pointless to produce goods far from the consumer: a heifer is half a heifer overseas, and a ruble is transported. The world changed the moment the Ideal X container ship, converted from a tanker, set sail on April 26, 1956, from the port of Newark, New Jersey, bound for Houston, Texas, carrying 58 standard steel containers (though some not Particularly successful experiments have been carried out before). Nowadays, up to 90% of non-bulk (that is, enclosed in containers) cargo is transported by sea in standard containers.

To avoid loss of containers and other troubles with heavy cargo, container ships are equipped with various devices and securing devices. In the holds these are guides, on the deck there are racks that hold containers and facilitate loading. In addition, they apply locking devices for connecting containers to each other.

There was a clear advantage to using containers. One of the most costly processes in sea transportation, both in terms of time and money, was the transshipment of different types of cargo in different types of land transport containers to the ship and back. Transshipment has now become incredibly easier, faster and cheaper thanks to the standardization of operations. A crane with standard grippers quickly moves huge steel boxes, and the loading and unloading process began to take hours instead of long days. Moreover, what is called intermodality in logistics became a reality: a standard container could easily be moved onto a rail or automobile platform to continue its journey from the port deep into the continent. With the advent modern technologies marking simplified and accelerated the process of addressing and tracking cargo: at all stages of its movement special devices read the unique code placed on board the container.

True, to achieve true intermodality, it was necessary to agree on standard container sizes that needed to be “fitted” into both maritime and land transport infrastructures. In 1961, five years after the Ideal X's maiden voyage, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) designated basic standard container 20 feet long (just over 6 m). The second standard was a container twice as long - 40 feet, which is by far the most common. However, the payload of container ships is usually measured in TEU, that is, the equivalent corresponding to the 20-foot standard.

Containers are made from a special type of alloy steel - corten. This is not stainless steel, but the thin oxide layer that appears on the surface (hence the red-brown color) reliably protects the deep layers of the metal from the effects of the sea elements. The largest container ship today is the Maersk Mc-Kinney M? ller - capable of taking on board 18270 TEU. A container ship with the capacity to carry more than 20,000 TEU is expected to be built soon at Korean shipyards, a value that could reach its maximum as such a vessel approaches the Suez Canal's capacity limit. Of course, except giant container ships There are also smaller vessels, for example Panamax (fitting into the dimensions of the old locks of the Panama Canal) and New Panamax (corresponding to the dimensions of the new locks of the same Panama Canal), as well as even smaller container ships.

Ships and cranes

Containers are transported both in the holds of the ship and on the deck, where they are piled in several tiers. Of course, the question arises why, in sea conditions, they do not roll around the hold and fall into the water. They fall, but more on that later. Although, of course, the container ship is equipped in such a way as to deliver the cargo as safely as possible. In the holds, containers are placed along vertical guides, which ensure precise positioning of the cargo and hold it during voyage. For ease of loading, the deck of a container ship can be opened almost entirely (by 85%), and then, when the hold is full, it is closed from above with durable hatches. In their simplest form, these are thick metal plates that are installed using a crane. There are ships with sliding decks. In new models, vertical guides began to be installed above the deck, so that an empty cargo ship of this design resembles a bristling porcupine. If there are no guide posts, the containers are installed without them, but, naturally, there are many other devices that fix the containers on the deck and join them to each other. For example, a twistlock type mechanism is widespread. This device is inserted into the technological holes of containers standing above each other, and with the help of a rotating head, two loads are rigidly attached to each other.

Some container ships (not the largest ones) are equipped with cranes, so they can carry out loading and unloading operations independently, but in container logistics there is much more role is more important cranes installed in ports. Container cranes can be high-profile, when the boom is suspended high in such a way that the ship can freely pass under it, and low-profile - in this case, during loading and unloading, the boom changes its position, either extending above the ship, or going back. The container is secured to the lifting platform using twistlocks.

The largest container cranes available today are Super class Post-Panamax. These are giant cross-shaped structures with a long boom that allows them to serve ships with a width of 22 rows of containers or more. The record was set in March 2010 in the Malayan city of Port Klang: with the help of nine cranes, 734 container movements were completed in an hour. The logistics of container shipping today are so refined that the time of arrival of a particular container, say, from a ship to a car platform, can be calculated with an accuracy of plus or minus 15 minutes.

Ducks in the ocean

But what about the elements? Yes, no matter how powerful large container ships may seem, to say that they are not afraid of storms would be an exaggeration. On February 14 this year, the 346-meter giant Svendborg Maersk was caught in a storm in the Bay of Biscay, famous for storms. As a result, 520 containers were lost. The company that owned the vessel claimed that most of them were empty, but obviously not all. A few days later, a container with 11 million cigarettes washed up on the British coast, just from a Danish container ship. The total number of containers lost annually is unknown, with estimates ranging from 2,000 to 10,000 per year. Real reporting neither ship nor Insurance companies they are in no hurry to share so that it does not scare customers, especially since we are talking about an insignificant share of those 160 million containers that are transported by sea annually.

Naturally, containers that have fallen from ships cannot be removed from the water immediately after falling - there is no way. While they are sailing, there is a danger of collision with other ships.

Nevertheless, a forty-foot container is quite a weighty material object containing up to 30 tons of payload. It is believed that, once in the water, it will gradually begin to collapse due to constant turning over, it will be filled with water, and it will drown. The only question that remains is when exactly this will happen - after all, if, for example, inside there are electronic components lined with blocks of foam plastic, then you can hardly expect rapid flooding.

There are funny cases involving the loss of containers. For example, in 1992, a container of rubber ducks, which are given to babies during bath time, washed away from the Evergreen Ever Laurel. The ducks were scattered throughout the world's oceans, and they say they can still be caught here and there. But, of course, the loss of containers has another sad side: it is a threat to shipping. Floating containers are especially dangerous for small vessels such as sailing yachts, and similar collisions have been reported more than once. Containers may also carry toxic contents.

However, like supertanker disasters that are much more dangerous in terms of environmental consequences, incidents with the loss of containers are unlikely to lead to a serious change in the existing state of affairs. Since the workshop of the world has settled in the East, and the main consumers of its products live on the other side of the Earth, sea containers will remain a container for all the most valuable things that a modern person would like to have.

Cranes for loading, unloading and sorting containers

Cranes are widely used for loading, unloading and sorting containers. Nowadays, when the container fleet consists mainly of 2.5 (3) and 5 ton containers, most cranes used for these purposes have a lifting capacity of 5 tons.

The most common are double-cantilever gantry cranes. Non-cantilever gantry cranes, truck-mounted boom cranes, portal, rail, bridge cranes are also used, and for heavy containers - powerful bridge loaders, gantry, portal, twin portal and floating cranes.

For example, a gantry crane with an auxiliary platform for containers mounted on the crane supports has been developed. There was a need to quickly equip many container sites with gantry cranes for cargo processing of heavy containers. That's why gantry cranes adapted for loading and unloading 20-ton containers of type 1C by reducing the span from 32 to 25 m and increasing the load capacity to 25 tons.

Bridge cranes with a lifting capacity of 5 tons, Jut, used on container sites, have a span of 11-^-32 m, a load lifting height of 16 m, a crane travel speed of 88.5-120 m/min, a trolley of 38-45 m/min, and a lifting speed load 8-12 m/min.

At small railway stations, rail-mounted jib cranes and various types of cantilever gantry cranes are used.

Cranes in sea and river ports for loading and unloading 5- and 2.5(3)-ton containers, mainly portal booms domestic production and imported, with a lifting capacity of 3, 5 and 10 tons.

Cranes are used to load and unload heavy containers greater lifting capacity or resort to paired operation of cranes.

Due to the increase in transportation of heavy containers, the berths will be equipped with new types of cranes heavy lifting capacity, for example, Sokol cranes (GDR), specially designed for sea and river ports -

containers, reloaders with a lifting capacity of 32 tons at the gripper, which will be produced by domestic industry, as well as imported reloading cranes.

As a temporary measure, some old cranes are being adapted to work with containers. Their carrying capacity can be increased by, for example, reducing the boom reach and the speed of lifting the load.

Among portal jib cranes with large lifting capacity, one can note, for example, the KPM 32-30-10.5 crane of the Zhdanovsky Heavy Engineering Plant, as well as a crane with a lifting capacity of 15 tons at any boom radius - up to 33 m, with a load lifting speed of 60 m/' mines produced by the Ganz plant in Budapest (Hungary).

Bridge container cranes and gantry cranes with large lifting consoles best meet the technology requirements for handling specialized container ships.

The KK-5 double-cantilever gantry crane is designed for reloading and sorting 5-ton containers and containers of smaller weight. The crane on two supports is self-erecting, rail-mounted, electric. The operating speeds of the crane have been increased compared to the speeds of previous cranes, which can significantly increase the throughput of container sites.

Conventional warehouse counterbalanced forklifts with capacities from 1.5 to 10 tons:

"Heavy artillery" of loading equipment

Loading equipment used in the port is divided into two groups:

• compact port loaders for transporting heavy goods and working inside containers;
• port reach stackers for moving the containers themselves.

Use of forklifts

Port forklifts differ from conventional ones, first of all, in their lifting capacity. They are capable of quickly handling loads weighing up to 50 tons, moving with high speed, withstand the intense rhythm of work of the transport terminal and any weather conditions.

Compact dimensions and the ability to grab cargo from the side allow them to drive inside containers and operate in limited warehouse space.

With their help you can:

• Transport heavy industrial equipment;
• Move large quantities of goods;
• Transport sheet iron, granite, marble and other building materials;
• Load and unload containers or trucks.

Features of reach stackers

Reach stackers are used to move shipping containers, both empty and loaded. The main elements of their design are a gripper, a lifting mechanism and a retractable arrow. The presence of such equipment is the key to the normal functioning of the cargo port. After all, use taps or forklifts, even with high power, is unprofitable for moving containers. A reachstacker loader works much faster and more efficiently, therefore it can perform more operations per day. In addition, it secures the container more reliably, which means it guarantees the safety of people and cargo.

Port reach stackers allow you to:

• Quickly transport 20, 40 and 45-foot containers within a port or terminal;
• Load the container and remove it from the vessel;
• Save space by stacking containers on top of each other;
• It is easy to grab and lower the desired container, no matter what height it is at.

Purchase of port equipment

By contacting the Atlet group of companies, you can be sure that you are getting the best prices and the most favorable conditions for the delivery of equipment throughout Russia.

In addition, you always have the opportunity:

• Inspect the equipment of the selected brand on the demo site
• Pay for goods in a convenient form
• Order service maintenance in our tech. center
• No problem buy any Consumables and spare parts

Our managers are happy to answer all your questions - just choose a convenient method of communication - telephone, E-mail or communication on the website.

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Advantageous purchase

The specialists of ATLET Group are familiar with all the features of certain models. We will help you do right choice both if you just need to buy a forklift or trolley, and if you decide to completely update your fleet of special equipment.

• We offer a guarantee and the best prices for forklifts and other equipment.
• Delivery of heavy machinery, small equipment and forklifts to St. Petersburg and other cities is carried out as quickly as possible.
• Our assortment includes products from trusted brands.
• We always have spare parts for forklifts and all types of construction and warehouse equipment on sale.
• Maintenance is provided by our own service center.
• You can choose and buy any equipment, including loaders, by

Sea container loaders– specialized equipment that allows you to accurately and quickly perform loading and unloading operations in ports. They represent lifting mechanisms with pneumatic wheels, designed for moving and storing containers, loading them onto tractors and trawls.

Types of container loaders

Gantry cranes

Gantry cranes are used to reload containers from terminal areas to ships and back. The mechanism moves in both directions rail track limited length. The key parameter that determines the design and dimensions of the machine is the number railway tracks, which it can block.

All portal cranes can be divided into the following types:

• beam;
• barge;
• dock;
• container;
• pneumatic;
• rail;
• pavements;
• port

Straddle carriers

Straddle carriers are used to transport containers from the place of unloading - the railway platform - to the place of loading - to the pier. They allow you to stack equipment in 2-3 tiers. They are used in terminals with a large area and cargo flow.

Shuttle container ships

Shuttle container ships are used to move containers horizontally within buffer zones. They increase the throughput of terminals and increase the speed of operations. Not suitable for installing containers on trawls.

Reach stackers

Reach stackers – universal loaders for intermodal operations. They can work with two tracks of road trains and railway tracks. They are equipped with rotating mechanisms, retractable booms and grippers, which allows them to handle containers of all sizes and types, including refrigerated ones. Reach stackers are compatible with different types attachments. They are effective both in small warehouse areas and in large terminals with intense cargo traffic.

Main technical characteristics of reach stackers:

• load capacity;
• wheelbase;
• working mass;
• rows;
• tiered stacks.

In accordance with these characteristics, the following types of these machines are distinguished:

• for moving equipment from land to ship - with a long wheelbase;
• for moving and stacking up to 6 tiers;
• for moving only loaded and only empty containers.

Forklifts

Forklifts are stackers, conveyors and other types of warehouse equipment that are compatible with different types of attachments. Their key parameters:

• appointment;
• load capacity;
• number of sections in the mast;
• type of power plant;
• tire type

All types of loading and unloading equipment for terminals are optionally equipped navigation systems global monitoring. This allows you to control the location of cargo and track operations with them in real time, that is, it provides the dispatcher and the customer with accurate information.