Cargo-Handling Gear of a Ship

Cargo-Handling Gear of a Ship

 

equipment for loading, unloading, and rearranging of freight.

Usually a ship is equipped with cargo-handling gear of the periodic-motion type—loading booms, cranes, and sometimes elevators. The loading boom is the most common form of cargo-handling gear in freighters because of its simplicity of operation. Modern ships, however, are usually equipped with electric or hydraulic cranes. The load capacity of stationary ship cranes is usually 5–8 tons, with some going up to 15 tons and more. The traveling cranes, however, reach capacities up to 30 tons. These are located on container carriers, lumber and package carriers, bulk cargo carriers, and other types of ships. Elevators with load capacities of 1–5 tons are used for moving passengers and small loads on passenger, fishing, and other ships.

Continuous cargo-handling gear (conveyor belts, bucket elevators, pneumatic cargo movers, and the like) is used mostly in self-discharging ships—ore, coal, and cement carriers. The capacity of various conveyor-type devices can attain 4,000 tons per hour.

E. G. LOGVINOVICH