Made in Virginia: TMEIC Corp - Port Crane Automation
Today. On mate in Virginia, we're, going behind and, above, the scenes to the port of Virginia to. Learn just what it takes to control the ports line up of ship to shore cranes, and, it's no small task to import, an export over 50 million tons of products, annually, it requires, safety, precision. And speed, to service, the East Coast steepest, in most modern port, driven. In power by state-of-the-art engineering, the, port crane control, systems, developed, by the t-mike, corporation. In Roanoke, Virginia are. At the very heart of what makes the port of Virginia one. Of the nation's most desirable. Cargo, destinations. Its, material. Handling and port crane automation, at its finest, and it's all made, in Virginia. Made. In Virginia, is brought to you by. And. Union. Bank and Trust we. Salute the dreamers the, thinkers the, doers the, believers, the, builders, and the makers thanks. To your vision hard, work and innovation you. Make Virginia. Shine Union. Bank and Trust a partner. Of Virginia, business and a proud supporter of made, in Virginia, and Virginia, public. Broadcasting. The. Import, and export journey, to and from the port of Virginia generates. Nearly a billion and a half dollars. In state and local taxes, annually the. Designers, and engineers at, t-mike the Roanoke, Virginia based, corporation. Have developed, and deployed control. Systems, that assure the Port of Virginia's, wharfs and cranes operate. In a safe efficient. And speedy manner. I love, our port how, we now have the deepest port on the East Coast with the 50 foot depth. Recently. I was able to welcome Costco, development, the largest, ship to ever go through the Panama Canal let me tell you when I went through the canal you know about this much on each side it is four football fields long about. Seventeen, teus, wide, when. It went through there's only one port it could come to it, came to our port in Virginia, and, when that ship came in I tell you it was something and, with all the goods and cargo that was on it and then, guess what we, loaded, that up with. Virginia, products that then take out we're moving trade seven days a week 24, hours a day we. Have six facilities within the port portfolio. For, deepwater facilities, - inland facilities, one in Richmond and one up in Front Royal so. We're constantly moving, imports, to the United, States markets, a lot, of our activity moves inland by rail and we're moving exports, and a lot of agricultural. Product over, ten billion dollars of agricultural. Product from Virginia, was, exported, across this port last, year so, we really are facilitating, commerce we're facilitating trade, we're, creating, economic. Opportunity, for Virginia, I think anybody today recognizes.
That You have to be part of the global economy, virginia's. Really bless and that we have. Seaports. And both airports as well that, are gateways, to. Global commerce. Many. States don't have one, of these assets and we have both, with. The ports of Virginia, we, are reminded every day, products. That are coming in and products that are going out these, are products made in Virginia, we're. Proud of that and we see the job creation. The. Additional income to Virginia, that that arises out of doing business with other countries. T-mike. Combines, its world leading system, engineering, Network, technology. And intelligent. Sensor systems, with its other core technologies. To, provide automated, control, systems, to the port of Virginia we. Supplied the control, system and the drives and, the, engineering. Expertise, to make the cranes do what they're going to do so we have PLC. Control which uses, programming. Languages to run, the cranes we also supply, the drives we have a few sitting here next to me these, are drive simulators, those are actually what makes to make the motors run so. The as the crane moves the the drives give those commands, and we, also supplied, the engineering, design for, some of the networking and for, the control of the crane, interfacing. With the outside world so through database connections, and other, computers, that are the, customer already has so, the, business is an exciting business. It's. Big equipment doing. Great. Processes, that improve commerce, improve. The global. Economy, you know we work around the world on doing these pork projects, we've done port projects in China you, know Australia, Europe it's. Nice to have a project at. All and seeing. That our technology. Is benefiting, you know there's the state of Virginia, and moving, more commerce through the state of Virginia such that the overall economy of Virginia can grow I mean, t-mike is what drives, our. Port I mean the automated, port the automated cranes that we have on today we, can put the goods on we can take them off faster, than I believe any port in the United States America you, are in a one day drive of basically, 65%. Of the population in the United States of America from our port that, we have down in Hampton, Roads nowhere. Else can you get to that percentage, of the population just. Our port but, having, t-mike in there technology. The cranes moving. It quicker than any other port in America that, just gives, us a strategic, advantage because, you, know many of the goods are moved they got to get there very quickly they're not making money until. People have their product and we can do it faster than any while so in in essence what I tell people around the globe when I travel, you want to make money in America, with your goods you. Better bring it to the port of Virginia because the only place you can move those Goods into the market and get it out to the breadbasket of America nobody. Can do it faster, than we can our port of Virginia we, couldn't move anything, if it wasn't for the control systems, that we have from t-mike they're, a part of our evolution. As a port we're, moving, to send the automation trying. To move things quicker safer. Cleaner and. If we didn't have these control systems or this inside. The, equipment. Knowledge, we. Wouldn't be able to function so. It really we're relying on and part of the value to us when we awarded, the contract was, a Virginia company that has international, exposure. Is, gonna be working right here at home so we are going to be a home test base for t-mike for, a long time because, the. Order that we placed on November, 17th, of last year, was, 486, rail, mounted gantry cranes, every. One of them has t-mike, inside, so. Just think of it that way every one of them is gonna be blended, married, and deliver here, and, they won't work until t-mike's work is done for the Virginia port project we're supplying the electrical, equipment for the ship Shore cranes the large 50, meter cranes that take containers, off the ship and put them on the pier and. Then we doing the automatic, stacking cranes which, take the containers, from the pier put, them in a stacking, area like a yard to.
Store Them until the truck driver arrives with this truck to pick up those containers and take it out to the final customer and, then we're also doing the the, rail, cranes, the large RMG, cranes would span the rail tracks so, we can, take those containers that are coming off the ship and, put them on top of the Train so they can be then taken. To the next city and offloaded, there to be distributed, to the final customer but. The electrical equipment and computer system you would see on those cranes is. Similar to like a large robot even though it doesn't have arms really, to speak of but the, computer systems and the electric quitman are moving the arms and legs to. Get the container off the ship onto the pier and then, the automatic, stacking, cranes are moving at a much higher speed to move them into the stacks to get them away from the ship so the ship can then pull away we, did elementary, drawings so mechanical, drawings that, that, helped us interface with coney cranes the Cloney cranes are the mechanical, drawings. For the cranes and we took those mechanical, drawings and we applied our, expertise. And gave them electrical drawings, for. The i/o and, for, the interface. To the PLC we, use those to develop, our software so we are actually delivering a software package and that's the main meat. Of our our, product and that, the crane control is what we what. We sell for that and we also have sensor. Packages, we have our max euwe system and our crane director system those are sensor. Packages and software packages that allow the crane to actually be, autonomous to. Do automatic, moves by itself the. Process, of developing, the world's finest, crane control, systems, like any other begins. With solving, a problem the, engineers, at t-mike have been solving, problems, for over 40, years right here, in Roanoke Virginia in. This case the, problem was how do we safely, and efficiently move, more cargo, on and, off more, in bigger ships and onto trucks and trains and do, so with a highly, user-friendly. Reliable. System, that, can repeat, the operation from one container to another each. And every day the, port themselves, have a have have their own business, system, running. Their port and they're the ones sitting there because they know when the truck drivers coming they. Know where to put that container if it's a special container like a refrigerated, container that's put in a certain location if it's a hazardous, container they put in another location so, the port at their level have a business, system computer, system that they're using the tractor containers. They, send the instructions down to us of which containers, need to be moved in and moved out so, it's, sort of like they're the supervisor, and where, the worker and, we make those cranes do the work that the supervisor is telling us to get done in a certain amount of time, before. The ship enters the port a complete, list of all of its cargo is delivered, to the port authorities, this. List or manifest, then, begins the automated process by. Prioritizing, the order of what will get transported, to its assigned section, of the port and when it has to get there t-mike's. Automated, system then goes to work calculating. And organizing, the incoming load for a safe and efficient, ship to shore movement, of the cargo it's, like a Rubik's Cube you have to know where everything is but, then you also plan ahead so.
You Know they should things that but you use you've got this stack of say five high and, the fourth one down is a citator I want why, need I know that I have to move that container at some time in the future so. While, I'm moving containers. Around I can move the containers, on top of that two different locations say, during a down period, so. That I can get access to that particular container when I need to or even move it to a different location so, now the move from it to the truck let's say it's going out it's. A much shorter move much quicker move and more efficient, when. The ship arrives the, automated, ship to shore crane standing, 50, meters high move in and begin unloading with, great care and precision, the cranes place and stack the cargo right where it needs to go from, the unloading, of the ship's all the way through the process when the cargo is placed on trucks or railroad, cars operators. In the command and control room, use t-mike's automated, crane systems, and their, max view smart landing system to monitor the operation and, confirm, the successful, completion of the job now. The technology. Today, in the past the crane was a big mechanical, robot, but it was all manually, controlled, by the operator, he was using his eyes to. Move the equipment into location, and then adjusting, levers to make those containers lift up and move back to the pier now, we're you know introducing, vision systems laser systems, to, be the eyes for, that crane now and then we're using other sensors, for the positioning, of the spreader. Depict a container up and put into the right location, so, the operators are really now they're more to supervise, to, make sure the cranes operating, safely and if, there's any abnormal, activities. Outside the crane that the operator can jump in and take control of the crane the. Automation, does give you that efficiency you're, able to do moves. All day long day or night whether it's light or dark and that, that automation just lets them keep, burning the port at all times you don't have to worry about somebody. Getting sick or somebody not being on the crane or not knowing how to run run the operators, you know if the crane runs by itself so. Without. That the it's. What, we had in the past which again is a manual train the efficiency, safety, many, of those types of things are very important, what. We get measured upon in terms of our success, is is.
Placement. Of the containers, on top of each other how, accurately are they stacked so, they don't fall over as. An example that that is a problem importance about these stacks falling over so we have to make sure we stack, them so that they won't fall over so, they're very tight tolerance, in that stacking, but, we also get measured on the number of moves how, many containers can you move over a period of time so again that, means we have to very accurately move, and know where to move those. Containers, around the port in addition. To that there are people everywhere, so. Safety is very very important, so, we have to have systems, that they are able to detect when, people around and stop, the operation so, that we're not taking these containers, over top of us a truck or even an individual, so, so safety is extremely, important aspect is one. Of the simplest challenges is the fact that we have this machine that is 80. Feet tall we're trying to land this 40-foot, container and as you, move down the rails you know it's not a completely, rigid machine it's moving around and it's, tilting. Back and forth the machine itself and so we have to compensate for that in our controls, and in our measurements. So we have to be within 50 millimeters, it's essentially to two inches. That's for pick-up and drop-off and, so those containers, are 40, feet wide so, we have to be accurate within 2 inches on a 40-foot, container and that's, landing. The ground landing, on other containers, and in. Some places around the world that's also landing on trucks and things like that so that accuracy is it's. Pretty tough to get but with our sensor, system. In place we have that very consistent. After. The containers, have been stacked t-mike's, automated, systems, now in coordination, with the trucks and rail cars that haul the cargo to market, are loaded, these. Automated, rail cranes move the cargo to truck and train with the same speed and precision as, they did when unloading placing, and stacking. Simultaneously. The ship that was just unloaded, is being loaded with goods from Virginia, to be shipped all around the world because. Of the demand internationally. For t-mike's products, the company could be headquartered anywhere. In the world and one, would think an offshore location, would make most sense, but, when t-mike's leadership, added up all the factors, the logical, choice was, to remain in Virginia, where they have access to world-class engineers. And a quality, of life that is hard to beat this, particular, operation, started. With a GE operation, that's been at the valley for a very long period. Of time, and. Certainly. All. Those years ago when GE made the decision, to. Come here there were various reasons for that, but. Clearly. We, didn't have to stay we. Really did not have to stay here in the valley. But. Being quite honest with you I'm not originally, from the valley and many, of the people in this business were not originally from the valley. But. You couldn't pay me to move. Someplace else, what, attracted, t-mike, to stay in this region when they could have been anywhere, is, a combination. Of. The. Quality, of the workforce. The. Quality, of the community, high, educational. Opportunities. And and. Offerings. The. The, quality of life in in a broader sense, t-mike. Is really an integral part, of our, community, they. Represent. A global. Picture. With. Deep roots here in, the valley and so. What. They make and the, people they attract. And. The products, they create, then, go, far and wide and so, the. Having. Them as a part, of the business mix, is is. Essential, really to part, of our success in, the Roanoke Valley t bike has been great for the Roanoke Valley, region, they've been a great company all the engineer high paying company, they have about 300 plus employees down there really, spectacular, but by them now working, with us to make our port the best in the globe and that's, done with the help of a Virginia, company, who, have been providing the drives to run the cranes more efficiently, and faster. That's, a win-win for the Commonwealth, of Virginia and I assume that you know other ports are gonna be looking well how does Virginia do it they're, gonna have to hire t-mike they're gonna great Virginia company great Roanoke, City company, and that's, if you want to get the fastest, cranes moving the most efficient, you're, gonna have to hire t-mike to bring those drives to Virginia. Is blessed to have a very diverse economy, we're not like many states that are dominant, at perhaps and. Chemicals, or, petroleum. And, so. We have many companies, that are exporting their products, around, the world anything, from fiber optic cable, to.
Chemicals, To. Surgical, products. To. Industrial, problems. There's. About. Three. Hundred and twenty thousand jobs in, the Commonwealth. Because. Of international, trade and, to put that into perspective, if. Whether, you talk about billions of dollars or jobs that are created. Virginia, we're very fortunate that Virginia is a tourist State is a tourist, destination we're, proud of that but. International, trade in Virginia is about three times the size of tourism, and so, we have these gateways. And. It makes it very, cost-effective. For, opportunity companies, to. Sell their products, and, move them through our. Infrastructure, system the. Port of Virginia is the third busiest port on the east coast of the United States New, York and New Jersey's first Georgia. Is second and were third so, we've become part of a network and all of those ports get called by the, shipping lines just. On April 1st the shipping lines created new alliances, the. Port of Virginia was very successful, calling. First and and last out calls with all the new carrier networks, so, we have seven weekly services, from Asia to the u.s. calling. This port either, first in or last out so. That becomes really important when you're moving the product first, in get, the imports to the consumer, faster last. Out makes, our economic opportunity. For our export, products to, get overseas markets, faster, without delay my. Next goal would be to get it to a 55-foot. Depth that, of course would be the deepest, in the country we're, working with the Army Corps of Engineers I'm, optimistic, that would be the next step but, today those post-panamax, ships when. They come to the East Coast the United States they, have very few choices and clearly. Their best choice is, the, port of Virginia in that I would say not only because of the 50-foot, depth let's be honest. We, have the largest naval base in the world there all the aircraft carriers, destroyers, the nuclear subs there's a lot of great activity, we need that deep port, but. When I'm very proud of is the efficiencies. That are now on the port with, with t-mike, and as I say with our cranes to be able to move those containers, very quickly and then, to be able to offload, and then to get out to the Commerce, of America, nobody, can do that we've done we, have CSX, we have Norfolk Southern, I've, expanded, 64. I put new interchanges. At 564. So, that we can get our Goods immediately, moved out so the, good news is the port set we. Are on a trajectory, now, to be the biggest in the globe I won't take second, to anybody we are going to demolish those other worthless ports, everything, in the future of this country's got to go through the port of Virginia the.
The Mandate for the port of Virginia is, to be an economic catalyst for all Virginia, companies for all Virginia, communities, to, grow the economies, to create jobs, so. We had the support of the governor the legislature. And the administration when. We undertook, what is a historic. Effort to, put 700 million dollars into action, tomorrow to increase the port by 40 percent in three years this, wouldn't be done without the, political will and the support we have from the legislature, and the governor so, we're trying to deliver on that promise diversify. This economy, grow this economy create, jobs, for Virginians, and make, Virginia, the place to do business manufacturing, is alive in Virginia, there's, about a quarter of a million jobs directly. Tied to manufacturing. About. 4,500. Manufacturers. In Virginia, across, a wide, range of sectors, and products that are made as. I said they pay, higher, wages than. Than the average non, manufacturing wage. We. Need to inform, the next generation, that making, a product is a good way to make a living, and you, can sell that product anywhere, in the United States or around the world and. That's going to provide great. Wages, and a living for those people involved, in the manufacturing, sector, you. Know manufacturing. Is high-tech nowadays any. Part, any sector. Any product, there's, a lot of technology, that goes into manufacturing, products so. We need bright young people. To. Gravitate, and go into the manufacturing sector, well. Right now we're under projects, 700, million dollars a million container, capacity, we're going to increase the capacity of this port by 40 percent in less than three years so. That's a big shot, now that message, is also going around the world saying Virginia, is in the business forever, we, are in this to win it as a, port to be a safe harbor on the East Coast and be one of the premier ports, on the East Coast so, the, Virginia message is getting all over the world because all the carriers are from every continent. You know the shippers are from every continent, so, they know Virginia becomes a safe harbor we, become that global, gateway for. Trade both, imports, and export, so we're selling Virginia, every, day that's, what we do t-mike. Based in Roanoke with its wide array of state-of-the-art, products, is at the heart of the Virginia Port Success, continuing. To lead the way and innovates with its crane automation, and control systems, all made, in Virginia. The. Weight of measure or mass that we call a ton has its roots in measuring, the displacement of saltwater caused by the weight of cargo, and ships this. Measurement, is called an imperial ton for displacement, ton the, actual, origin of the common, word ton we use in the u.s. today comes from a, ancient. Greek meaning. Tuna fish be, Roman. Meaning, the weight of ten fully armed Centurions. Or, sea, English. Meaning, the weight of 35, cubic. Feet of seawater the. Answer, when, we return. Made. In Virginia, is brought to you by. And. Union. Bank and Trust we. Salute the dreamers the, thinkers, the, doers the, believers, the, builders, and the makers thanks. To your vision hard, work and innovation you. Make Virginia. Shine Union. Bank & Trust a partner. Of Virginia, business and a proud supporter, of made, in Virginia, and Virginia, public. Broadcasting. Although. The word ton has many origins, for its usage, as a unit of measure the. Actual, origin of the word is a to. Knows Greek, for tuna fish by. The way a ton, is used to describe the common us measure for mass or weight is 2,000. Pounds, next. Time on mate in Virginia, we're going to toast to perfection. It's single, malt whiskey and it's the winner of the world's, best American, single malt learn. The secrets, of fine whiskey making right here next. Time on mate, in Virginia. If. You would like to learn more about today's, episode or, suggest, a Virginia manufacturer, for the program, you, may visit us at made in Virginia, TV, and, at, WVPT. Net. You. You.
2017-12-17 07:04
