TMEIC automates RMGs at Global Container Terminals

Automation specialist TMEIC, a joint venture between Toshiba and Mitsubishi Electric headquartered in Tokyo, is providing the systems for 20 Konecranes automatic rail mounted gantry (RMG) cranes, as part of the expansion of the Global Container Terminals’ facility in Bayonne, New Jersey. By go-live in the second quarter of 2014, the expansion will increase the terminal’s capacity to 1.1m lifts per year at build out, making it the most technologically advanced facility on the US East Coast.

Each RMG is 80 feet high (24 m), has a lifting capacity of 40 tonnes and can stack containers five high. The cranes use the company’s TMdrive-10e2 variable frequency drives as part of the Maxspeed advanced crane control system platform.

The cranes will also feature the advanced Maxview optical guidance systems, and the CraneDirector system to coordinate the interface with the Navis terminal operating system. The automation system allows a choice of local autonomous or remote control operation. A fibre optic network is used to link all crane functions with the central control room and the terminal computer.