TMEIC to Supply World's Largest Automated-Stacking Cranes Project
TMEIC drives and automation solutions will control 86 Konecranes for The Port of Virginia® expansion.
ROANOKE, Va. (January 12, 2017) – Toshiba Mitsubishi-Electric Industrial Systems Corporation (TMEIC) has been selected to provide industrial drive and automation solutions for The Port of Virginia’s® historic expansion project, totaling 86 Konecranes Automated-Stacking Cranes (ASC) at the Norfolk International Terminal (NIT) and Virginia International Gateway (VIG) facilities. This is the largest ASC order TMEIC has received to date and the largest single ASC order ever placed by a port.
"TMEIC has been a longtime, proven partner with Konecranes and The Port of Virginia, including the construction of VIG and the original ASC implementation there in 2007," TMEIC President & CEO Dale Guidry said. "Although TMEIC provides automation and drives solutions to industries around the world, it is particularly exciting to supply a project of this magnitude in the Commonwealth, only hours from our U.S. headquarters."
In the announcement from the Virginia Port Authority, John F. Reinhart, CEO and Executive Director of the Virginia Port Authority called the decision to team up with Konecranes and Roanoke, Virginia based TMEIC a logical choice, while Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe commented on the benefit to the Commonwealth saying, "This project will create jobs and economic spin-off. One of the first beneficiaries of that will be TMEIC, which is a growing company that, with Konecranes, has a global demand for its services: it will be good for TMEIC and it will be good for Virginia."
In addition to supplying 860 TMEIC-manufactured TMdrive®-10e2 industrial drives, the automation package for the project will incorporate TMEIC’s state of the art laser-based Maxview® and Maxspeed® control systems, providing fully automated solutions for high speed movement and placement of both 20 and 40 foot containers. Maxspeed® crane control systems constantly adjust speed and direction of the crane motors driving the gantry, trolley, cable reels and hoist, providing incredibly fast reaction time to operator joystick, precise control and ultimately higher crane production rates. In conjunction with TMEIC’s Maxview® crane laser-based vision systems, The Port of Virginia expansion will experience labor savings, increased yard productivity, reduced equipment maintenance and improved safety.
Procurement will proceed on two contracts of 60 and 26 ASCs for NIT and VIG, respectively. Equipment delivery will commence in 2018 and is scheduled to be completed in 2020. Upon completion, the port will have expanded the container handling capacity at VIG by 600,000 units and the capacity at NIT by 400,000 units. The combined cost of the projects is $670 million.
