Cranes are lifting machines equipped with a winder, wire ropes or chains and sheaves that can be used both to lift and lower materials and to move them horizontally. Put in basic terms cranes use one or more simple machines to create mechanical advantage to enable the movement of loads beyond the normal capability of a human. The principles of operation of today's cranes is taken for granted, however, we thought you might be interested in learning a bit about the history of cranes and their development into the modern age of technology.  Throughout the history of mankind, cranes in one form or another have been used to assist in lifting items of great weight.

Cranes have held an important place in history since the early beginnings of civilisation.  They have been used extensively to construct buildings which are a testimony to the achievements of mankind.  Their invaluable contribution in the construction industry has made the impossible, possible.  The construction of the Panama Canal was a technological feat that earned the distinction of becoming the eighth man made wonder of the world.  The giant cranes of that era were used to assist in the construction of this great engineering marvel.  There are various photographs of cranes used in the construction of the Panama Canal that assisted in the performance of this incredible feat of engineering.  We hope you enjoy the information provided in this section of our site. 

CRANES AND CONSTRUCTION OF THE PANAMA CANAL 

CRANES USED IN 2009 ON THE PANAMA CANAL

The Panama Canal is a major shipping lane and there are various types of cranes used to assist with loading and unloading of the large containerised ships that regularly dock there. A portainer (also known as a container crane, container handling gantry crane, quay crane, ship-to-shore crane or a STS crane) is a large dockside crane in the form of a specialised type of gantry crane used to load and unload container ships, and only seen at container terminals. The term Portainer is a registered trademark of Paceco Corp. who is generally believed to have delivered the first Container Crane to a marine terminal in Alameda, CA in the 1960s. Container cranes have a special lifting device called a spreader bar (also known as Spreader or Expandable Spreader) for loading and discharging of containers. The spreader bar has four or eight (twin-lift) twist-locks which lock and unlock into the corner-castings of the containers and can be used in 20', 40', or 45' positions depending on the size of the containers. Horizontal gantry rails and their supporting structure are cantilevered out from between frame uprights spaced to suit the length of a standard freight container, so that the gantry rails project over a quayside and over the width of an adjacent ship allowing the hoist to lift containers from the quay and move out along the gantry rails on its trolley to place the containers on the ship. The whole crane runs on two rails so that it can traverse along the wharf (or the dock) to position the containers at any point on the length of the ship.   Container Cranes are generally classified by their lifting capacity, and the size of the container ships they can load and unload containers. A Panamax crane can fully load and unload containers from a container ship capable of passing through the Panama Canal. A Post-Panamax crane can fully load and unload containers from a container ship too large to pass through the Panama Canal. The largest modern container cranes are classified as Super-PostPanamax. A modern container crane capable of lifting two 20 foot long containers at one time will generally have a rated lifting capacity of 65 long tons from under the Spreader. Post-Panamax cranes weigh approximately 800-900 long tons while the newer generation Super-PostPanamax cranes can weigh 1600-2000 long tons. PANAMAX CONTAINER CRANES Click on images for larger view

	Consult this link for more information and photographs regarding the ships that have crossed the Panama Canal since its completion in 1914 to its proposed future expansion in 2009
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