Gantry cranes are useful for picking up super-heavy objects like engines of vehicles or ships. You will also see them in shipyards carrying heavy containers from one place to another. These cranes come with a supporting framework that can extend as much as the length of a full yard. They have a rail track attached at the side of the cranes so that it makes it easy to pick up heavy load without too much effort.
While unloading anything the rail tracks slide to the side of the crane so that they easily offload the object without doing any damage to it. Before you decide to buy a gantry crane, you should know its types and how they work.
1. High-profile gantry crane
The hinge on the waterside of the crane holds the boom. In this system, the entire unit remains right at the side of the ship and over the water. The operator needs to lift the crane up from the top of the ship whenever he has to pick up any object.
2. Low-profile gantry crane
Unlike the high-profile crane where the waterside of the crane holds the boom, in this system, the boom can shift to the end of the ship. This helps the crane to load and unload containers up and down the ship. You will mostly see low-profile gantry(pórtico) cranes in container terminals located close to airports. They are smaller in size compared to high-profile gantry cranes. Most importantly, they don’t create any obstruction to the navigation of the ship.
You need to choose a gantry crane according to the type of objects you want to load and unload from the containers of a ship. Additionally, you should also keep the local environment and the size and design of the containers in mind before buying one of these containers.
Different gantry crane categories
Apart from the two types of gantry cranes, you should also remember their categories, divided according to their lifting capacities.
• Panamax – These cranes get their name because they pass easily through the Panama Canal. They have the ability to lift 12 or 13 containers. These don’t have to apply too much pressure while loading or unloading objects from another Panamax-class container.
• Post-Panamax – These can lift heavier and bigger containers than the Panamax cranes. They are called Post-Panamax because they can load and unload containers from ships that are too huge to pass through the Panama Canal. They can lift 18 containers without applying too much pressure.
• Super-post-Panamax – They are the biggest gantry cranes that exist. You will see them in international shipyards. They are so massive that they can lift 2 20-footer containers in one shot. However, it has a complicated system because of its huge size. But the flexibility(flexibilidad) in operations makes it a popular choice in shipyards.
Now that you know the different varieties of gantry cranes, which one do you think suits your loading and unloading projects? Select one according to the space you can provide and the weight it has to carry.