Port of Le Havre reduces vibration for crane drivers

At TOC Europe in Rotterdam Steve Nikolayev, Customer Experience Manager, Gantrex, and Xavier Bocé, Chief Maintenance Projects Engineer, Port of Le Havre, gave a joint presentation on how Gantrex helped the port address a problem crane drivers were experiencing with the port’s STS cranes.

Drivers were experiencing excessive shocks and vibration as the cabin passed over the boom hinge point and at certain points along the boom. Visual inspection of the trolley rail and the trolley rail structure showed degradation of the hinge joint area and localised wear at the hinge joint and on the welds of the trolley rail.

Nikolayev said such wear is typical of a hard-mounted crane rail system, while welds on the trolley rail typically wear faster than the rail itself as the material is slightly softer.

Gantrex conducted a root cause analysis with vibration testing by installing sensors on each corner of the trolley, driver cabin and the driver seat. Large shocks and vibrations were observed when the trolley passed over the hinge joint.

Some further shock and vibration conditions were observed when passing over the welded joints on the crane rail. Lateral vibrations at the driver seat were measured and determined to be “excessive”.

Replacing the hinge joint

With the support of the self-propelled platform, Gantrex installed its HingeGuard at the boom joint. HingeGuard is a patented solution that extends the “soft mounting” feature of Gantrex rail clamps to the hinge joint. It uses a special vulcanised rubber layer between the rail head and the base of a short rail section to reduce shock.

Gantrex also ground the trolley rail welds along the length of the boom smooth to minimise shocks and vibration.

The work was completed in six days and was well received by crane drivers, Bocé said. Vibrations were reduced by 36% and shock impact by a factor or two. RMS (Root Mean Square) vibration in the driver’s seat was reduced by 62% in the lateral direction.

The port was concerned with how well the work would perform over time. In March, almost one year after the initial installation, a new vibration analysis was performed. This showed no increase in vibration since installation.

Nikolayev added that the performance of the rubber layer within the HingeGuard that protects the top of the rail from localised wear at the joint was modelled with Finite Element Analysis and has now been observed on site.

Bocé concluded that the port is optimistic it has found a long-term solution to a problem that gets progressively worse as a crane ages and has proved difficult to solve in the past.

Gantrex HingeGuard is a patented solution that extends the soft mounting feature to the boom hinge joint / Credit: Gantrex