Container handling and lifting equipment, such as a crane or a gantry

In a container handling crane with four parallel cables, said crane further having a rotating plate mounted on a gantry frame, a ballast member mounted on said rotating plate, two lifting drums mounted on said rotating plate, and a boom pivotably mounted at one end to said rotating plate, wherein the improvement comprises:

• a smaller boom mounted to the other end of said boom with said four cables suspended from said smaller boom;
• a four sided fixed part pendantly connected at each corner to each of said four cables, said four sided fixed part defining a first four sided plane at the connection of said four cables, said first four sided plane having a center;
• a rotating member rotatably mounted below said fixed part for relative rotational movement therewith, said rotating member further comprising:
• a lower frame member;
• an external frame member mounted adjacent to the periphery of said lower frame member;
• a secondary four sided frame member mounted adjacent to the periphery of said external frame member, said secondary four sided frame member having two parallel side rails;
• four parallel rotatable members rotatably mounted to the periphery of said external frame, said four parallel rotatable members having a first pair of rotatable members, a second pair of rotatable members and a second plane defined by said four rotatable members, said second plane having a center, first pair of said rotatable members further engaging one of said two parallel side rails and said second pair of said rotatable members further engaging the other of said two parallel side rails, each said four rotatable members further being mounted to said external frame member so that said center of said second plane defined by said four rotatable members coincides to the center of the plane defined by the connection of the four cables to said four sided fixed part;
• a spreader member pendantly connected to said secondary four sided frame, said spreader member further demountably secured to said container for handling of said container;
• moving means, mounted to one end to said secondary four sided frame member and mounted at the other end to said external frame member, for moving said secondary four sided frame member longitudinally relative to said external frame member so that the center of gravity of the weight of the container is located on a vertical axis through said center of said second plane defined by said four rotatable members;
• load measuring means, mounted between said lower frame member and said external frame member, for measuring the load in each of said four lifting cables so as to generate a signal having a characteristic indicative of the load in each of said four cables;
• and
• comparison means for receiving each of said signals from each of said four lifting cables of said load measuring means to operate said moving means whenever one of said each of said signals from said measuring means exceeds a predetermined value so that said moving means moves said secondary frame member to equally distribute the load in each of said four cables.

In a gantry crane using four lifting cables for lifting containers, said gantry crane having a beam held at each end by at least one of two vertical posts, and a carrier which moves along said beam from one post to the other post, wherein the improvement comprises:

• two drums mounted in said carrier, one of said drums mounted perpendicular to the other of said drums;
• the first and third of said four cables further being wound around one of said drums so that the first and third cables are suspended from said one drum in spaced apart relationship and the second and fourth of said four cables further being wound around the other of said drums so that the second and fourth of said four cables are suspended from said other drum in spaced apart relationship;
• a four sided fixed part pendantly connected at each corner to each of said lifting cables, said four sided fixed part defining a first plane at the connection of said four lifting cables to said four sided fixed part, said first plane having a center;
• a rotating member rotatably mounted below said four sided fixed part for relative rotational movement therewith, said rotating member further comprising:
• a lower frame member;
• an external frame member mounted adjacent to the periphery of said lower frame member;
• a secondary four sided frame member mounted adjacent to the periphery of said external frame member, said secondary four sided frame member having two parallel side rails;
• four parallel rotatable members rotatably mounted to the periphery of said external frame member, said four parallel rotatable members having a first pair of rotatable members, a second pair of rotatable members and a second lane defined by said four rotatable members, said second plane having a center;
• said first pair of said four rotatable members further engaging one of said two parallel side rails and said second pair of said four rotatable members further engaging the other of said two parallel side rails, each of said four rotatable members further being mounted to said external frame member so that said center of said second plane defined by said four rotatable members coincides with said center of said first plane defined by the connection of the four cables to said four sided fixed part;
• a spreader member pendantly connected to said secondary four sided frame, said spreader member further demountably secured to said containers for handling of said container;
• moving means mounted at one end to said secondary four sided frame member and mounted to the other end to said external frame member, for moving said secondary four sided frame member longitudinally relative to said external frame member so that the center of gravity of the weight of the container is located on a vertical axis through said center of said second plane defined by said four rotatable members;
• load measuring means, mounted between said lower frame member and said external frame member, for measuring the load in each of said four lifting cables so as to generate a signal having a characteristic indicative of the load in each of said four cables;
• and
• comparison means for receiving each of said signals from each of said four cables of said load measuring means to operate said moving means whenever one of said each of said signals from said measuring means exceeds a predetermined value so that said moving means moves said secondary frame member to equally distribute the load in each of said four cables.