Georgia waterways are a southern hub that provides access to raw materials and finished products from around the globe. Since 1945, the Georgia Ports Authority (GPA) has managed deepwater ports in Savannah and Brunswick, as well as inland barge operations in Bainbridge and Columbus. Over the years, the GPA has seen tremendous growth and now boasts more than 9,700 feet of contiguous berth space and one of the busiest single terminal container facilities in the United States. Due to this continued growth and dedication to provide customers with the most productive port facilities, the GPA identified the need for more efficient container movement. To help develop a solution to this need, they contracted TMEIC, a leader in safe and efficient port automation. TMEIC helped the GPA install their Maxspeed electrical drive systems in an effort to upgrade six ship-to-shore cranes. The cranes are located at Garden City Terminal in the Port of Savannah, which is the fourth-busiest container port in the United States. “The Georgia Ports Authority continually strives to provide our customers with the most efficient container handling equipment available. We are excited that this philosophy has been achieved on two of our cranes with the assistance of TMEIC,” GPA Director of Engineering and Facilities Maintenance, Chris Novack, said. He also noted that TMEIC was awarded the contract to supply these upgrades as a result of a competitive selection process. The project replaced the original DC drives with TMEIC’s TMdrive 10e2 drives and controls. TMEIC also supplied new AC hoist motors with higher HP that enabled GPA to increase container moves by two containers per hour. “To design the right solution for GPA, TMEIC worked directly with Paul Harkness and his team to understand what they were trying to achieve. With TMEIC’s many years of experience designing crane drives / control systems, we were able to choose the right sub-components to make this project successful. For example, Woelfer Motors supplied AC Motors that were a drop in replacement for the existing DC units. Pintsch Bubenzer Brakes and Hubner’s U-One encoders were integrated along with the GE Rx3i PLC to give GPA the right solution to meet their customer’s demands,” TMEIC Sales Manager, Rackley Dawson said.
