When people talk about cranes, what appears other peoples minds are massive, tall machines operating sometimes in city centres, lifting and manoeuvring high weight construction materials, such as steel support beams, but they also play a big role within the freight industry, particularly where marine cargo is concerned.
If you’ve ever seen a commercial port in action, you will instantly see how cranes play an integral role in their day to day operations. They help to move everything around with ease, including the massive shipping containers, and without a highly advanced crane system, which often includes a level of automation, we wouldn’t see anywhere near as efficient operations as we currently see in our ports.
Usually the cranes in use will be quite a bit different than a crane used in construction. Firstly, the items being lifted can be considerably heavier, even than a massive steel support beam; add to this the fact that most of the cargo doesn’t need to be lifted very high, and you can see why they often have stout cranes being used in ports around the world.