Loading and unloading as quickly as on wheels
Non classé
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19 July 2017
With the recent commissioning of its rail/road intermodal platform at Bettembourg-Dudelange, the CFL Group has equipped itself with the infrastructures required to continue to confirm itself as a high-performance pan-European hub. With its new site, which has a surface area of 32 hectares, the CFL Group is thereby giving itself the resources to respond to an ever-increasing demand for its various services, including within the goods transport and logistics sectors, amongst others.
On the occasion of the opening of the new terminal, we hereby provide you with a presentation of some of the spectacular equipment items that characterise this site, which is unique in Luxembourg, and focusing on the terminal’s two gigantic gantry cranes.
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- These two colossal steel structures, which are 22 m high and 75 m wide, are each capable of lifting a 41-tonne load.
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- Consequently, lifting 20, 30, 40 or 45-foot containers is child’s play for these powerful cranes!
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- Alongside the containers, whole semi-trailers are also loaded onto railway wagons.
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- The two cranes place their loads down on one of 4 railway tracks, each of which is 700 m long.
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- The power supply (for electricity & computer data) for the gantry cranes is provided using a 350-metre long cable wound onto an enormous reel.
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- Storage is managed very efficiently and precisely using the semi-automated system which assists the crane operator when moving containers within the storage zone.
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- This is not a job where you want to have vertigo: at a height of 9 to 10 metres above the ground, the crane operator controls all of his machine’s functions, including the rotation of his work space (up to 180 degrees).
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- Day and night, 3 crane operators currently control the daily activities of the gantry cranes, which are in continuous operation, involving, on average, the equivalent of 80 to 90 handling operations per shift and per person.
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- Several screens help the crane operator to monitor the gantry crane’s movements. However, his work is primarily done visually. To load and unload the semi-trailers, the crane operator is assisted by personnel on the ground.
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- Safety is guaranteed at all times: laser controls ensure that the gantry cranes stop instantaneously in front of any obstacle within their clearance gauge, as well as when moving towards each other (anti-collision sensors).
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- CFL Multimodal provides training so people can become crane operators, with this consisting of a 4 to 6 week in-house apprenticeship followed by courses supervised by specialists from outside the company.
