Pintsch Bamag GmbH, which is owned by Schaltbau Holding AG, has sold Pintsch Bubenzer GmbH to Dellner Bubenzer Group GmbH, which, in turn, is owned by Dellner Invest AB,  with its subsidiary Dellner Brakes, and Active Ownership Capital.

Dellner Brakes had earlier purchased the drum clutch and brakes business of Gummi USA in 2017, and the integration of Dellner Brakes into the Dellner Bubenzer Group is now  being planned.

In its 2017 accounts, Schaltbau Holding AG reported a write-down of less than €1M on the investment value of Pintsch Bubenzer, but the price of the transaction was not disclosed.  In a letter to customers Markus Topp, who remains president of Pintsch Bubenzer, advised customers that: “The new shareholder structure offers new opportunities in order to  realise our full growth potential, with an even larger range of product and service on a strong and solid basis. By the planned integration of Dellner Brakes AB, including Dellner  Gummi USA, into the Dellner Bubenzer Group GmbH, supported by the existing Pintsch Bubenzer subsidiaries in Malaysia, Singapore, China, Dubai and in the US, the new group is  aiming for a non-consolidated group turnover of close to US$100M in the year 2018.”

Engineering-led firms

In an interview with WorldCargo News Marcus Åberg, Dellner Brakes managing director and Dellner Invest owner representative, said purchasing Pintsch Bubenzer brings together  two companies with the same engineering-led philosophy that have strengths in different markets. Dellner is strong in general and marine braking applications, while Pintsch  Bubenzer is a leader in industrial applications including container cranes. At TOC Europe in 2017, Dellner launched a new range of brakes also targeting this market, but it will now  focus on port cranes through the Pintsch Bubenzer brand.

Åberg emphasised that Dellner is very proud to own Pintsch Bubenzer, and has no plan to change its centres of production, or move any of the engineering and design functions to  Dellner in Sweden. There have been no management changes at Pintsch Bubenzer.

The main centre of production will remain in Kirchen Wehbach, Germany. The electromagnetic brake range (the former Pintsch Bamag brake line-up that was separated from Pintsch  Bamag and merged into Pintsch Bubenzer by Schaltbau) was included in the sale to Dellner. These products will continue to be produced in Dinslaken.

Among the main reasons Dellner purchased Pintsch Bubenzer was its tradition of innovation, position in the market, customer service and growth potential. Åberg said he sees  significant scope to expand Pintsch Bubenzer internationally, with more local offices around the world for sales and support, and Dellner is prepared to invest in this area. Service,  he added, is a key part of the business plan, and Dellner “wants Pintsch Bubenzer to continue its excellent customer work, and be positioned to give customers the best service they can imagine”.

In recent years, Pintsch Bubenzer has invested in developing its own thruster, the BUEL design, which means it can offer brakes produced completely inhouse. This clearly  challenged the relationship between Pintsch Bubenzer and EMG. Åberg declined to comment on this point, but said Dellner believes the business case for developing the BUEL thruster was sound, and noted there will be opportunities to increase its use, for example in Dellner Brakes’ main markets of marine and general industry.

Dellner was supported by an investment fund for the acquisition. Åberg said that, while there may be opportunities to add other companies in the future, the focus right now is on  Pintsch Bubenzer and planning its expansion.

Pintsch Bubenzer has now developed its BUEL thruster into a full product range. The first BUEL thruster was theBUEL H for service brakes, and this is joined by BUEL G for  emergency brakes, and, to complete the BUEL family, the BUEL S for wheel brakes.

 
Across all three models the very high torque and ultra-fast closing times (under 50 ms) of the BUEL design open up new possibilities. One of the main benefits is the ability to  eliminate hydraulic fluid reservoirs, with all the required piping, fittings and maintenance, by using a thruster with just 0.5 litres of hydraulic fluid.

BUEL G is a compact thruster for emergency brakes that can be installed on a conventional hydraulic power unit for the safety brakes on a rope drum. With a BUEL G thruster  mounted directly behind or above the safety brakes, all the hydraulic pipes can be eliminated. The brake units can now be delivered complete from the factory fully assembled,  requiring only an electrical connection after installation. Flushing and filtering are eliminated, both at installation and as part of regular service, as the BUEL G has a lifetime oil  reservoir that does not need changing.

On the crane long travel system, BUEL S is used to provide opening force for the Pintsch Bubenzer BRBe wheel brake, again in place of a conventional hydraulic circuit. BRBe also uses a coil spring instead of a cup spring, which has a longer lifetime.

Pintsch Bubenzer is also leveraging the advantages of BUEL in its new BOSS anti-snag system. The core element of BOSS is ultra-fast-setting SB28.3 service brake with BUEL H thrusters, combined with load cells in the boom tip. When the load cells detect an overload, the brakes close and stop the upward motion of the hoist in less than 200 ms.

At TOC Asia in Singapore last month, Richard Phillips, president of Casper, Phillips & Associates, the crane consultants, gave a presentation on the Brake Only Snag System, where  he showed results from tests on a crane in the Middle East using a 125t load. The ultrafast-setting service brakes achieved a set time of 25 ms to pad contact, and a set time to full brake torque of 36 ms. A big operational advantage of this approach, said Phillips, is it can provide anti-snag with any TLS (trim list skew) system.

EMG next generation

Turning to EMG, at last month’s TOC Asia, EMG launched ELDROdynamic, a new brake thruster design, and a new platform called ELDROdigital for connecting its products to remote  monitoring and diagnostic systems. The new products are EMG’s response to two changes in the market:

• ? The advent of high-capacity hoist systems designed for tandem container lifting, which require brakes with significantly more torque.
• ? The trend towards connected products to support automation and remote monitoring. 

While there are some moves in the industry to replace hydraulic systems with electric actuators in some braking applications, EMG stresses that its new ELDROdynamic thrusters “are still 100% fail-safe, based on purely mechanical operating principles –  no electrical valves and no electronic components involved in the basic functionality as well as easy maintenance”. 

The focus in developing ELDROdynamic was “faster cycle times, higher forces for handling of heavier loads, as well as better heat resistance through active cooling and lower power consumption”, EMG explained. “Based on flow numerical calculations and simulations, we have perfected EMG’s existing technology.”

The ELDROdynamic series offers improved cycle times. For example, the ED4500/80, with 5,000 N maximal force and 80mm total stroke, has a performance 

of:

• ? Cycle time <900 ms.
• ? Lowering time <200 ms.
• ? Lifting time <700 ms.

Taking into account the remaining stroke (1/3 of total stroke), the cycle time is reduced by approximately 25%, the company noted.

EMG has built over 2M thrusters since 1931, and developed a reputation for reliability. Important factors in achieving a long lifecycle include “high-quality material sealings” and “state-of-the-art technology”, according to sales manager AlexHoffmann. “We use a special metal scrapper, which prevents dust and dirt coming inside the device. All these  measures extend the lifetime of the sealings.” There are wearing parts, which EMG recommends are replaced over time, but the thrusters are designed to keep performing “even  when first ageing effects like leakage are evident, so you have time to react”.

At the moment, those “first ageing effects” are detected manually, using visual inspection, and this is where EMG is targeting ELDROdigital to deliver value to its customers. ELDROdigital uses sensors to monitor temperature, pressure, force, position of the piston, as well as the reserve stroke of the thruster. With full condition monitoring,  any change in performance that indicates wear that needs to be addressed can be identified. As well as preventing unscheduled downtime, this also prevents unnecessary  maintenance, such as thruster rebuilds based on time in service, rather than the actual condition of the thruster.

EMG notes that the data from ELDROdigital will also help it as a company, as the data “gives us the unique opportunity to evaluate the environment and technological challenges of every individual application”, and make better decisions about which products will deliver the optimum performance in different applications.

EMG has now installed ELDROdynamic thrusters in most of the critical customer applications for field testing. “The feedback is very good. We see high interest for our new  developments following TOC Asia, where we introduced our development for the first time,” EMG stated. The company is now actively marketing ELDROdynamic for new and retrofit  applications, where the new thrusters are interchangeable with the existing EMG product lines. 

Sibre tackles snag

Sibre Siegerland Bremsen reports that its Snag Load Protection (SLP) system is now proven in the field after two years of operations on a crane at the Port of Algeciras.

The principle of SLP is to use sensors, together with extremely fast-acting brakes, to prevent snag situations from occurring. To detect that a snag situation is about to occur, SLP  includes a central processing unit (CPU) mounted on the crane’s headblock, containing a 360-degree inclination sensor and an acceleration sensor. The CPU is integrated with the  crane PLC through the Sibre SLP PLC, to capture information on the position of the spreader in the crane cycle, and the motion of the drive.

By integrating the SLP with the crane PLC, Sibre can identify when the crane is operating in an area where snag loads can occur. It then uses the sensors to measure the angle and  acceleration of the load, and detect if a snag situation is imminent. SLP then closes the crane brakes before any snag load impacts the crane drive system. 

Jose García Sancho, CTO  at Sibre, stresses that SLP is predictive, not reactive – it acts to prevent a snag load, rather than being a system to stop the drive and absorb the snag load, and therefore contains  no mechanical system to disconnect the hoist motors from the gearbox. Furthermore, it does not rely on detecting snag by measuring the load on the  wire ropes, which Sibre believes can introduce a delay due to rope stretch and other mechanical factors in the hoist system, plus the wire rope can snap in a snag situation.

SLP activates only when the system itself detects a snag event, it does not activate when the crane driver hits the E-Stop button. Unless the terminal operator specifically requests  it, it will not activate when E-stops are triggered by other systems, such as an anti-collision sensor on the boom or on a lashing platform.

At the brakes themselves, SLP uses special versions of the Sibre TEXU twin calliper (or optional USB) disc brake for the service brake on the high-speed end of the drive (between  the motor and gearbox), and SHI Calliper brakes for the rope drum. These are electronically controlled, and have faster response times. The high-speed brakes have two modes of  operation, with different closing times: “ultra fast” for snag situations, and “standard” for normal operations.

With regard to resetting the system, SLP can be reset by the driver from the cab, but García says that, so far, terminal operators prefer a person to go into the machinery house after a snag event, and reset the system from there.

Test results

SLP has now been tested on a crane at Algeciras in 2016 and 2017, with the system being in full use in normal opera-tions during 2017. “The system proved 100% effective in  anticipating and alerting users of faults, potential dangers and issues, with a 0% false-alarm rate,” said García.

Performance results in average times are as follows:

• Prediction time – 50 ms (the time in which an upcoming snag is detected from the first signal of an abnormal movement to the initiation of the SLP trigger).
• Reaction time – 150 ms (time lapsed from the trigger until SLP brakes close with full torque). 
• Stopping time – 100 ms.

These results show that “the Sibre SLP has stopped the main hoist before other systems begin to detect the snag”, said García. “SLP has now been approved by the global terminal  operator involved in the tests, and other terminal operators have begun to include the Sibre SLP in specifications for new STS cranes.”

With two years of testing now behind it, Sibre is looking to expand the customer base for SLP. García adds that the system is validated and certified according to EN ISO 13849 part  1 and part 2 requirements, obtaining a performance level PL-d and a SIL-2, according to the International Standard IEC 61508. It is also suitable for retrofit applications, where Sibre estimates that terminals can achieve a return on investment of one to two years.

BRELX goes electric

In another significant development for the container crane industry, BRELX of British Columbia has expanded its range of spring-applied electric release brakes to include wheel  brakes.

As reported last year, BRELX developed a range of “pure electric” rail clamps with a patent pending, wear-free time adjustment system, allowing a setting time of three to 30  seconds.

Bret Bromhead, president of BRELX, said the company is now applying the same technology to wheel brakes.

 
He claims that the new wheel brake is the only electro-mechanical brake of its type on the market today. “Spring-applied hydraulic release brakes have been a very dependable and necessary product over the last 40 years, but, as with almost everything, these days electric is the future.” The advantages include brakes that are cleaner, easier to maintain,  better for the environment, and simpler for preventative maintenance.

The electric system operates using a motor driving a speed-reduction unit and ball screw to compress the main sprints and release the brake. At the end of the release stroke, a  proximity switch turns off the motor, while, at the same time, a small electric motor brake (requiring 8-12 watts of power) comes on to hold the braking device in the released  position. 

“When brake-set, power failure, or E-stop is chosen, and all control power is removed, the small motor brake is released, and the high-efficiency mechanical system is back-driven by the main springs, thereby setting the braking device,” explained Bromhead.

One of the areas where hydraulically released brakes have traditionally performed very well is for controlling the setting of the brake, which is important to prevent a sudden shock  to the crane structure. Bromhead argues that this can also be achieved with an electric design. “To control setting time, there is a permanent magnet eddy current brake attached  to the release motor shaft,” he explained.

“A simple mechanical adjustment of the air gap in the eddy current brake changes the torque of the eddy current brake, thereby varying the setting time of the entire braking device, while also dissipating spring energy. The eddy current brake disk incorporates a one-way clutch, so that it only functions when the overall braking device is setting.  The one-way clutch freewheels when the motor is releasing the springs, so it is very efficient.”

While three to 30 seconds are the standard setting times, longer and shorter times are available, and the setting time is adjusted through a simple mechanical screw.

Bromhead adds that its electric system was tested on rail clamps for over 250,000 cycles during in-house testing, and is now in operation. “Currently, we have spring-applied  electric release rail clamps installed at Neptune terminals.  The environment at Neptune, in our opinion, is the worst of the worst, being coal, potash and salt, being on the ocean front – an absolutely terrible working environment. Our electric release clamps have been working flawlessly for over a year with zero issues to date. Our spring-applied electric  release wheel brake uses a similar actuator, so we are very confident in the durability and technology for the product”.

As BRELX grows its business, other products are in the pipeline, and the company continues to build its distributor network, recently signing an agreement with Mi-Jack for the USA  region. This is an important step, as Mi-Jack has service agreements for some of the Hans Künz RMGs in the US. 

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This complete item is approximately 3000 words in length, and appeared in the May 2018 issue of WorldCargo News, on page 59. To access this issue download the PDF here.