MacGregor cargo transfer and access equipment is known worldwide for providing power to move cargo on and off ships faster, using every new technique to streamline loading methods and cut time in port. MacGregor cargo-handling expertise has been applied to every kind of dry cargo ship afloat, custom-built or converted. Its equipment is backed by a service network covering every major maritime nation.
On ships without the necessary cranes, MacGregor has a method for using the hatch cover as a crane to manipulate 'tween-deck pontoon hatch covers within ships having large, flat sided holds. It was devised by Deutsche MacGregor of Bremen. The "rolling crane hatch cover" fulfills a dual purpose. It acts as a hatch cover and, because it is equipped with a powered traction drive with built-in lifting winches, it can be rolled along the weather deck coaming like a gantry crane, using the winch wire to lift, stack or otherwise move the pontoon panels situated directly below on the 'tween deck.
At the time of going to press, a total of four vessels had been equipped with a rolling crane hatch cover.
At the present stage of development, the vessel most able to benefit from the new device is the "paragraph" type coaster having one large hold. Many of these ships have been built in West German yards in recent years. In these vessels, the 'tween-deck hold often does not permit the stowage of pontoon covers, and they are usually not equipped with their own cranes.
The rolling crane hatch cover — conceived in response to an owners particular need—can be incorporated in either the Single Pull, Folding or Piggy-back hatch cover systems. With Single Pull it becomes the (detachable) lead panel in stowage; and with the folding system the crane cover is located between the folding pairs which stow fore and aft on the hatch.
Apart from its use as a straight pontoon hatch cover crane, the rolling crane hatch cover can be used to move pontoon covers into position to form an extra transverse bulkhead in the cargo hold to separate different cargoes.
All resources of the International MacGregor Organisation are available in the United States through MacGregor Comarain Inc. of Cranford, N.J.
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