Crane Accidents and Emergencies

Causes, Repairs and Prevention

Presented by
Portek International Limited
15 March 2007
Larry Lam
Soon Chong Tok

Chairman
Technical Director

For enquiries, please email: enquiry@portek.com

The contents of this document are copyrighted and proprietary, and may not be reproduced without the permission of Portek International Limited

Definitions
A Crane Accident is an unplanned and unintentional
event involving a crane or cranes, or other objects that
result in damage or injury of some kind and normally
involves a strong human element in its causation.
A Crane Emergency situation is an unexpected and
sudden event in which the crane is subject to damage,
and where the cause is not immediately linked to the
operator.
A Crane Incident is a general term for either a crane
accident or emergency

Crane Accidents
can happen in the following ways:
when a ship contacts a crane
when a crane contacts a ship
when cranes contact each other due to strong
wind gusts during operation, often resulting in
a multiple chain collision
when a crane contacts another crane or an
object during operation

Crane Accidents

Right seaside leg hit

diagonally by ship's
bow
(ship contacts crane)

Crane Accidents

Crane boom struck ships funnel (crane contacts ship)

Crane Accidents

Crane (blown by wind gusts) collapsed after collision

Crane emergency situations can arise from

Exceptional situation such as typhoons, hurricanes,
earthquakes resulting in crane collapse, derailment or
severe damage
Crane failure as in
electrical fires in diesel generator or electrical room
crane drive faults leading to free fall of load
mechanical faults as in brake failure, twist-locks
failures, etc resulting in uncontrolled fall of load
structural damage as in fatigue failure, poor
workmanship or design.
Heavy weather or inadequate lashing during ocean
transportation of cranes

Crane emergency situations

Structural failure - A-frame pylon bent and tipped forward

Crane emergency situations

Right tension rod broke from fatigue

Frequency of Crane Incidents

Crane Incidents are happening with increasing
frequencies, due to:
rapidly increasing population of cranes
increasing crane dimensions, hence decreasing visibility
and control
insufficient distance between fender face and seaside
rail, and increasing flare of ships bow, as ships get
bigger
standards of crane maintenance not keeping up
standards of safety in crane operation and terminal
operation failing to keep up
insufficient understanding of risks involved, and lack of
precautions taken
adverse and unpredictable weather

Typical Processes in a Crane

Incident
Recovery phase comprising Survey and
Salvage and Stabilization
Repairs and Re-commissioning

Typical damage
bending and buckling of the legs, sill beams
and portal beams
derailment seaside and landside bogies
tearing apart of joints between equalizer
beam and sill beam

Typical damage

Ship contacting
Crane boom

Damage from Ship contacting crane

Typical damage

Contact at seaside leg, only a nick is seen

Typical damage

Derailment at seaside

Typical damage
No derailment landside,
but severe damage to
leg

Typical damage

Severe bending of
landside leg

Typical damage

Buckling of sill beam landside

Typical damage

Joint at equalizer beam separated and twisted

Typical damage

Total destruction of boom snagged by a departing ship

Typical damage

Entire portal and boom twisted by ship pulling on boom

Typical damage

Wind gusts causing crane collisions

Damage from Collisions

Repairs
Design and Analysis

Fatigue failure of an unloader & computer modeling of crane structure

Repairs

Simulation of failure & Redesign and Repairs

Crane Supports for Repairs

Computer simulation of crane support

Crane Supports for Repairs

Robust support in place before cutting

Repair Methodology

Damaged plate removed and replaced

Repair Methodology

Damaged sill beam cut away

Repair Methodology

Replaced with new sill beam

Repair Methodology

Heavy damage due to constraints to side way displacement

Repair Methodology

Derailment allows displacement, therefore little or no damage

Repair Methodology

Structural bolts may be weakened and need replacement

Repair Methodology

Floating crane removing boom for repairs

Repair Methodology

Re-installing repaired boom

Repair Methodology

Boom hinge inspection and NDT checks

Repair Methodology

Line boring of boom hinge

Repair Methodology

Dimensional checks
using theodolite
equipment

Prevention
Prevention of crane incidents at
different levels:
at crane design and engineering level,
at crane operating level,
at terminal operation level

Prevention at crane design level

Double brake
machinery

Prevention at crane design level

Caliper brakes on flanges of boom hoist drums

Prevention at crane design level

Thruster disc brake for gantry instead of motor-mounted multi-disk brake

Prevention at crane design level

Caliper brakes on gantry wheel To provide even more braking power

Prevention at the crane

operating level
Safety training of operator cannot be overemphasized. Emergency drills
Boom down is an open invitation to trouble

Prevention at the terminal

operating level
Berthing and un-berthing - Vessels should come
alongside quay as parallel as possible.
Equipment maintenance not to be compromised in
favour of operational expediency

Risk Management Plan

Terminate the risks not likely. Inherently
risky.
Transfer the risks - Insurance
Policy. Consequential losses not covered
Tolerate the risks Accepting the risks. Self
insurance
Treating the risks involves prevention, reducing
the likelihood of occurrence and severity of loss

Conclusion
Risks associated with container cranes will
increase, due to
Increasing probability of occurrence
Greater severity of loss.
Modern container quay cranes quantum
leap in size, and complexity, not yet fully
understood as to risk factors

Thank You