Leading Angola terminal operator Sogester invests in new large MHC cranes and RAM’s heavy-duty spreaders to service container volume increase.

Critical to the success of the terminal is reliable spreaders. In 2019, RAM Spreaders supplied the terminal with four mobile harbour crane spreaders (MHC). Given how busy the terminal is, the spreaders suffered some heavy impacts, so the terminal’s engineering manager called RAM with some suggestions.

The changing face of Mobile Harbour Cranes
Traditionally, mobile harbour cranes are mainly considered for smaller ports with lower lifting capacity and speeds. This tradition is changing with the advent of big MHC cranes, such as the LHM 600 and more recently the giant LHM 800, with larger container terminals now using these types of crane.

Listening to the customer
After delivering several spreaders to Sogester terminal in 2019, RAM’s technical manager for Africa Louis Du Plessis made several upgrades to protect the mobile harbour crane spreaders‘ integrity and further boost performance in a demanding environment.

Sogester Terminal engineering team and technical manager Adil Bennani identified some aspects of the design that required improvements to give the spreaders increased reliability.

After listening carefully to Sogester, spending time in the workshop and observing vessel loading, Louis and Adil came up with several changes to improve the performance of the spreaders.  Louis and the RAM design team got straight to work to develop a new design for the 2750 model heavy-duty MHC spreader.

Adil commented after the consultation Louis arrived on site and we both carefully analysed the problems together. Louis listened to our concerns, and we are really pleased with the new heavy-duty design.

Click here to read the full article.