Ship unloader - Venezuela

Tailor-made solution for challenging needs

The Puerto Cabello terminal in Venezuela is an excellent example of how a challening application was solved by Siwertell designing a flexible and tailor-made solution.

About

Even the most experienced engineers at Siwertell were challenged by this application in Venezuela. Thanks to a large portion of creative thinking, the installation was successfully completed. 

When Siwertell was approached by Consolidada de Cementos (Cementos Caribe), the following challenges had to be overcome in order to successfully install a ship unloader in Puerto Cabello:

• The pier, built into open sea, was exposed to heavy swell, causing the ships to move up and down considerably
• The pier was very narrow and could take extra weight in only a limited number of positions
• The limited crane access and the narrow site made the installation difficult
• The ship unloader had to be pedestal- mounted and able to reach all parts of the ship’s hold without hauling the ship

Siwertell engineers were able to meet all these challenges by means of a state-of-the-art design, including new features like the ‘Reach Extender’ (an extra knuckle on the vertical arm) and a highly sensitive and balanced arm system to compensate for swell conditions.