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(1) Automatic bridge crane remote control room
(2) Haifa NewPort, which is busy in the evening
(3) Aerial view of Haifa Newport
Courtesy of SIPG Israel
Haifa, Israel's most important port city, is located on the beautiful eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. Every day, large and small freighters stop here, unloading or carrying thousands of containers, in this ancient city, a new port is rising, bringing new momentum for development.
A few days ago, a reporter from Science and Technology Daily went to Haifa Newport for on-the-spot interviews. The emerging port, which was built and operated by China Shanghai International Port (Group) Co., Ltd. (HEREINB), has just opened in September 2021. Compared with the nearby "historic" Haifa Old Port, the eight new "Chinese Red" giant bridge cranes on the shore of The Newport are particularly eye-catching, like shining rubies, set on the blue Mediterranean side.
As the most modern and automated port in Israel and even in the eastern Mediterranean region, Haifa NewPort is more dazzling than the core competitiveness brought by Chinese technology.
"Yangshan Experience" to create an automated terminal
The first phase of Haifa NewPort Terminal has an annual design throughput of 1.06 million standard containers, equipped with 8 bridge cranes and 22 rail cranes. Including the operators of the "behemoths" such as bridge cranes and rail cranes, the operation team of the entire terminal is only about 100 people. "Machines replace manpower", the secret of few people but can do great things is the introduction of a large number of automation technology.
Miao Qiang, general manager of SIPG Israel, told reporters that Haifa NewPort has transplanted the automated terminal technology and operation experience conquered by SIPG when it built the phase IV project of Shanghai Yangshan Port, and its core is the intelligent automated terminal operating system with independent intellectual property rights developed by SIPG.
The reporter really felt the changes brought about by automation when he was interviewed in Haifa Newport.
Bridge cranes for loading and unloading ships are one of the most central pieces of equipment in the port. Traditional bridge cranes require manual control on the bridge crane, and operators are suffering from huge noise and have to bend down for a long time, which is intense, inefficient and unhealthy.
The bridge cranes in Haifa Newport are all remotely operated, and a lot of the work is done by the machines themselves. The operator only needs to be in a control room away from the noise, sit in a comfortable chair and look at the display in front of him, only the first and last few meters of the container is hoisted and lowered, and use the control handle and a few buttons to perform simple operations like a game to ensure safety.
Miao Qiang said that each automated bridge crane in Haifa NewPort currently has the capacity to load and unload 200,000 TEUs per year, and the efficiency is stable, not affected by the operator's physical, psychological, experience and other factors, and it only takes 1 person to control such a 100-meter-long giant bridge crane. Xingang rail cranes also use similar automation technology, the traditional rail cranes require one operator per one, while the Xingang 22 rail cranes only need 4 operators, and the terminal operating system will assign different track crane control work to them according to the operator's working status.
Haifa Newport has become China's science and technology business card
"Haifa Newport is built and operated in full accordance with the Chinese solution and fully using the 'China Core'." Miao Qiang said that the Chinese brain, Made in China, Chinese brands, Chinese standards, and Chinese services are to highlight China's wisdom and make Haifa Newport a business card of Chinese science and technology.
Miao Qiang introduced that the bridge crane of Haifa Xingang was built by the mainland Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industry Group, which crossed the heavy ocean after completing the assembly in China and transported it to the Xingang terminal as a whole by steamship, which is one of the core technologies of Zhenhua Group. When the steamship hoisted into the harbor with the giant bridge, many Haifa citizens came to the shore to watch the spectacle.
"At the same time, we are also cooperating with domestic enterprises to introduce China National Heavy Duty Truck Group's domestic electric container trucks (hereinafter referred to as jika) into Xingang." Miao Qiang said that this electric collection card uses battery technology developed by the mainland Ningde Times company. At present, Haifa New Port is the only port in the world that uses a large number of electric collector cards, which greatly reduces the environmental pollution of terminal operations and highlights the concept of green environmental protection.
"In addition to using relevant technologies that have matured in China, Xingang is also exploring the use of some new technologies under study." Miao Qiang said that for example, the general automated terminal collection card must be stopped at both ends of the rail crane to load and unload containers, and each time the spreader is loaded and unloaded, it must be moved to both ends of the track to "find the collection card", which is mainly to facilitate the positioning of the collection card and spreader. However, the spreader moves slower on the track and runs less efficiently. The collection card is the fastest tool on the terminal, and the research team of SIPG group is working on a new technology, the core of which is the precise positioning of the collection card, which will allow the collection card to stop in the middle of the track to load and unload containers. Haifa Newport is experimenting with the technology, which has been calculated to increase the operational efficiency of the rail crane by about 30 percent.
Miao Qiang revealed that at present, Haifa New Port is still in the early stage of operation, with a throughput of 150,000 TEUs in the first half of 2022 and is expected to reach 350,000 TEUs throughout the year, more than 1/10 of the cargo throughput of The national port of Israel. "We plan to achieve an annual throughput of 600,000 TEUs in the coming years and eventually reach a design value of more than 1.06 million TEUs." Since the operation of the new port in Haifa, it has significantly alleviated the low efficiency of Israel's ports, the difficulty of entering the port of cargo ships, and the difficulty of leaving the port of empty containers, which has been praised and praised by the Israeli government.
(Hu Dingkun)
Source: Science and Technology Daily