Archive for May, 2007

St James Technologies, a recently formed subsidiary of St James Stevedoring based in the port of South Louisiana, has applied for a patent for a new laser-based draught tool device which it claims improves safety, customer service and loading accuracy. The draught tool is currently on its third working prototype. “We are very excited by the accuracy of the draughting tool results and are working with a design experts to make a tool which can stand up to the rigours of the stevedoring environment,” said St. James’ president Paul Morton. “The tool was designed to meet a number of parameters. First it had to produce accurate, repeatable results. Second, it had to be usable in the narrow space between fleeted barges.  Finally, it had to communicate data directly to a base from which the data could be dispersed to various users.”

The drafting tool is designed to take enough readings to create a picture of a river wave alongside the vessel. This data is captured by the tools processor, which feeds the data through a regression analysis to establish the vessel freeboard draft. The data is then fed wirelessly to the crane operator cab for and the St. James Technologies office where is can then be dispersed to the other users.
St. James Stevedoring, a 22-year old company specializing in the mid stream transfer of bulk  products between ship and river barges on the Mississippi River in the Port of South Louisiana, began working with members of local university to find technological solutions to problems faced in its stevedoring  operations back in 2005. The founding idea was to use St. James Stevedoring as a laboratory for testing various technological products and solutions created by the group. St. James Technologies LLC was founded in October last year.

“Our technological interests were focused when we purchased out first Gottwald Port Technologies barge-mounted crane. The Alex G was commissioned in February 2005 and uses a Gottwald 330 EG HPK crane mounted on a barge,” said Morton. “Having a powerful, computer driven crane, operating in the middle of the Mississippi River, opened our eyes to a range of technological possibilities.”
During a recent visit to Gottwald Port Technologies office in Dusseldorf, St. James had an opportunity to showcase some of Ops Center developments. “ I think people were quite amazed to be watching real time video images coming from a floating crane tied to an ocean vessel anchored in  the middle of the Mississippi River,” said John Crane, St. James’ Vice President of Sales and Marketing. “We are already using aspects of the Ops Center in our daily operations and seeing regular additions of modules as tome progresses”

The draughting tool is just one part of a larger Ops Center project under development by St. James Technology. “Basically, Ops Center is an intelligence-based software engine underlying a number of integrated technological projects St. James Technology is developing,” said Crane. “Area currently under development for Ops Center include wireless transmission of data and video from our cranes to our office via internet connections, creation of integrated budgeting and planning tools for stevedoring operations, a maintenance data system, a customer communication system and the draughting tool.”
Will Ops Center be avabile to other users? “We believe that other companies will see benefits from our development though if it only leads to St. James Stevedoring improvement all will be worthwhile,” said Morton.