The contract comes on top of an existing project whereby Kalmar is carrying out routine servicing of the entire TCS straddle carrier fleet. TCS currently operates 39 straddles at its Tilbury terminal, these being a mix of Kalmar and other brands.
Under the refurbishment programme, each of the 13 straddles was assessed individually and major repairs identified, prioritised and acted upon according to need. This process, Kalmar stated, provided better value for money than simply renovating each machine according to set guidelines.
Jason Smith, contract maintenance manager at Kalmar Industries, described the work as “predictive maintenance.”
He said: “The object of such an exercise is to carry out repairs to these machines before they break down. That way, you avoid disruption to operations caused through having to retrieve a machine from the stack or the quayside.”
It is also hoped that such a routine will avoid the consequential damage to other components that often occurs when a machine fails in service.
Michael Quinn, terminal engineer at TCS, explained the background to this deal. He said: “Our Kalmar machines are now approximately 10 years old and we want them to last for 15 years. It had become pretty obvious that without major refurbishment, reliability would become a real problem.”
He added: “Initially, we planned to do the work ourselves and costed the project on this basis. However, after talks with Kalmar, it became obvious that their people could do the work within our budget, leaving our team to focus on cranes and breakdowns.”
Each of the straddle carriers has done about 20,000 hours and so overhaul of each machine’s Volvo engine is the first priority, ensuring that they will be able to deliver another 10,000 hours with reliability.
