Liebherr material handlers speed up the unloading of wagons at Novorossiysk Sea Port

The port of Novorossiysk lies in Russia, on the Black Sea, and is run by the NCSP Group. 139.7 million tons of goods were handled there in 2015. This makes Novorossiysk the biggest port in Russia and the third biggest in Europe. Since 2001, NCSP has relied upon tried-and-tested port handling technology from Liebherr. In addition to the new material handlers, NCSP has more than 30 Liebherr machines in use, amongst which are crawler loaders, wheel loaders, mobile harbour cranes as well as harbour cranes with rail gantry undercarriages.

Three electric-powered Liebherr LH 120 Gantry Port material handlers are recent additions to NCSP's fleet. To configure the LH 120 for the port of Novorossiysk, the uppercarriage is mounted on a gantry undercarriage, which runs on rails. This portal-type arrangement has a width of 10.5 m. Two railway wagons side-by-side can pass through an LH 120 and be unloaded in parallel.

In the port of Novorossiysk, the main task of the Liebherr material handlers is to unload bulk goods from trains onto material heaps. The new LH 120 handlers have a reach of 28 m and can thereby cover a significant working area. With its enormous load bearing capacity of up to 10 tons and a reach of 27 m, the LH 120 can handle a great deal of material.

The Liebherr material handlers are powered by a 400 kW electric motor with frequency converter. A spiral cable reel on the undercarriage allows up to 50 m of travel from the supply point. Equipped with the standard Liebherr Energy Recovery System ERC, the machines have a total system output of 614 kW. With this additional gas cylinder mounted on the boom, fast and consistent working cycles are possible.

With the Liebherr material handlers deployed in the port of Novorossiysk, NCSP manages up to 125 working cycles per hour. This equates to a handling performance of 750 tons of material per hour when unloading wagons and ships.

The three LH 120 Gantry Port machines with the aforementioned configuration were just the start. In addition, NCSP is taking delivery of two of the new generation LH 150 Gantry Port handlers and an LH 150 Port handler with mobile undercarriage to replace the existing cable cranes. With these additional port machines, which are specifically designed for handling bulk goods, NCSP will be able to increase handling performance three-fold when unloading wagons.