Engineers in Slovenia have devised a system for testing the boom cranes needed for loading cargo on and off ships using Leica Geosystems total stations. A team of engineers and engineering students, led by Professor Jozef Predan from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Maribor, Slovenia, carried out a series of tests with a set-up they had designed themselves, for crane manufacturer Palfinger Systems. The system, which could well be adopted in ports across the globe, made use of a TS30 total station to obtain measurements of the deflected shape of a crane and its dynamic response. This tests whether the crane can take set loads without being destroyed or permanently deformed. Read More
