EN

GI

NE

ER

IN

G

&

EQ

UI

PM

EN

T

33

JULY

2012

DCi

E-Crane Worldwide is a modern, state-of-the-art engineering andheavy equipment construction company, based in Adegem,Belgium and with subsidiary companiesfor sales management, technical supportand service in The Netherlands (E-Crane International Europe) and Ohio,USA (E-Crane International USA). E-Crane Worldwide develops turnkeymaterial handling solutions withengineering services, equipmentmanufacturing, erection,operator/maintenance training andcustom tailored ongoing serviceprogrammes for its clients.

The standard E-Crane product lineconsists of five series of balancedhydraulic cranes (E-Cranes): 700 Series,1000 Series, 1500 Series, 2000 Series,and 3000 Series. The E-Crane is a trulyrevolutionary material handling machineas its main design feature is aparallelogram style boom configurationwhich allows the machine to be in near-perfect balance throughout the dutycycle. Compared to conventional cranes that require as much as80% of their available energy just to move the boom, stick, andgrab, the E-Crane makes gravity work for you instead of against

you, reducing horsepower requirements and power consumptionby up to 50% and significantly reducing maintenance and

operating costs.

E-CRANE IN BAUXITE AND ALUMINA:THE SHERWIN ALUMINA COMPANY

Two 2000 Series E-Cranes were putinto service at The Sherwin AluminaCompany LLC in Gregory, Texas in2010. Both E-Cranes are high gantryrail mounted and have an outreach ofup to 147’ and a duty cycle capacity of27 US tonnes. Together, these cranesunload up to 5mt (million tonnes) ofbauxite from Handymax and Panamaxsize ships annually.

Sherwin Alumina has beenproducing alumina (aluminum oxide)near Gregory Texas for more than 50years. Before 2010, Sherwin Aluminawas using continuous ship unloaders(CSUs) purchased in the 1980s. Thesewere complicated machines thatrequired lots of maintenance,

generated high amounts of dust, and could not unload ships ontime. While these CSUs have an impressive mechanical design,the constant and high cost of maintenance, along with poor

E-Cranes unloading 5mt of bauxite each year for Sherwin Alumina

EN

GI

NE

ER

IN

G

&

EQ

UI

PM

EN

T

35

JULY

2012

DCi

reliability, was causing major unloading delays resulting in hugedemurrage costs. Sherwin needed to find a replacement forthese unloaders that would reliably unload the incoming bauxiteships.

Research showed E-Crane to be the perfect and reliablesolution, and E-Crane was contacted in late 2008. After adetailed analysis of all possible ship unloading solutions, it wasdecided that two 2000 Series E-Cranes would be the solution.These E-Cranes were purchased fully assembled and ready forpick-up at an offsite location for less than half the cost of oneCSU, new in the 1980s. The new E-Cranes were built in theE-CraneWorldwidefacility inAdegem, Belgiumand weretransported toSherwin Aluminaexactly one yearafter the initialdown payment.A special heavylifting shippingmethod wasused to minimizedowntime at thecustomer’s dock.

E-Crane alsoprovided oneweek ofclassroomtraining for the32 operators.After a writtentest, theoperatorsexperienced‘simulator’training. Afterpassing a test in

the cab simulator, the operators moved on to ‘in-the-seat’training, and E-Crane technicians were there monitoring theoperators 24/7 for a further two weeks until management wassatisfied that the operators could function on their own.

The E-Cranes immediately proved themselves to be reliableand cost-effective ship unloaders by minimizing demurrage costsdue to lower maintenance, minimal downtime, and highreliability. Bally Kissoon, former port manager, often says, “I wishall our equipment was working like the E-Cranes!” Since theinstallation, both E-Cranes have been in 24/7 continuousoperation at the docks with average cycle times of 60 seconds.