A safe harbour thanks to overload safety
There is always a lot going on in a port. Ships arrive, they are unloaded and loaded, ships leave again – 24/7, 365 days a year. All as fast as possible, because time is money. It is all the more important that everything runs smoothly. An important contribution to this is made by the ELMS1 overload protection.
Scenarios that must be prevented
If, when unloading the ship, containers become entangled with other containers and, at the same time, the water level sinks due to the tides, the load of the entire ship hangs on the loading crane. In line with its task, the crane then continues to try to lift the container, which would almost certainly cause it to collapse. For the safety of people, equipment and goods, an overload must not only be detected reliably, but also very quickly.
If the forces exceed certain limit values, the ELMS1 safety electronics shut off and release the rope, until the force falls below the limit value again. This happens, double-safeguarded and within milliseconds. But the reverse case is also reliably detected. Slack rope detection is also integrated in the ELMS1.
Certified overload protection for crane systems
The machinery directive (2006/42/EC) regulates the requirements of safety control systems for use in practice, such as overload control or emergency shutdown switching. WIKA has developed the first system solution for overload protection in crane systems certified in Germany. As a result, the port operator has the great advantage of not having to request individual components, assemble them and, above all, have them approved, but can obtain everything from one source.
ELMS1 secures cranes in a user-friendly way
The ELMS1 overload protection consists of up to eight redundant force transducers, a central control and the associated user software. Everything “made in Germany”. In addition, it offers software-based parameterisation and is certified in accordance with DIN EN ISO 13849 with PL d.
The ELMS1 overload protection eliminates the time-consuming individual certification of the overload cut-off device. Retrofitting is also particularly easy when cranes are not newly built, but rather updated. The existing crane will be equipped with force transducers as well as the ELMS1 and will subsequently fulfil the safety requirements. This makes a customer-specific solution with certification particularly easy.
The world’s only certified “dual hoist twin mode”
The ELMS1 overload protection is the first dual-hoist system approved by TÜV (the central module is certified in accordance with DIN EN 13849-1:2016-06 category 4 PL e). The system can be extended to up to eight axes and then achieves up to PL d. In the “dual hoist twin mode”, four containers can thus be lifted simultaneously. This makes WIKA the only manufacturer in the world to have a precertified system for the “dual hoist twin mode” for cranes.
