TOC Europe is part of the Informa Markets Division of Informa PLC
This site is operated by a business or businesses owned by Informa PLC and all copyright resides with them. Informa PLC's registered office is 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG. Registered in England and Wales. Number 8860726.
TECH TOC Sponsor:
ARMS
It is an undisputed fact that shipping logistics are undergoing profound evolution.The attention of port operators and shipping companies is markedly focused on maximizing automation and digitization of operations linked to the transport and handling of containers.
Much has been done, leading technological companies produced automation solutions that improved operators operability and safety.
However, there are still large areas that need to be improved.
The ARMS team, based on decades of experience in the management of operations in container terminals and on board of ships, identified in the management of operational area of the storage of refrigerated containers, managed in the last 50 years with the manual contribution of port personnel and ship crews, an environment in need of major transformation.
A very significant example can be found on the walkways of reefer towers, where acoustic bombardment generated by reefer compressors in operation exceeds the threshold of human tolerability and where same electricians have to handle high risk electrical connections that carry 380V/32A.
Another fact, no less, is that those in charge must reach the reefer towers by crossing storage areas served by heavy handling vehicles such as cranes, forklifts and ITVs, with associated risks, historically incurring even fatal accidents. All these operations are managed in open environments and subject to all kinds of adverse weather conditions.
These facts, in addition to the need to make operations more efficient, led us to focus on terminal reefer area and on ships as our primary object of automation and digitization studies. In last two years, thanks to the support of our industrial partners SCAME SPA, CROUZET SA, Nuova ICOM, IDENTEC SOLUTIONS, we have been able to design and build suitable dedicated automation systems.
Thanks to our patent, the ARMS plug®, in terminal or on board ships is finally possible to automate the connection of refrigerated containers, remotely manage electrical and data connections with precision and rapidity, continuously checking the status of the reefer and detect its punctual’ electric consumption.
Our mechatronic arms "ARMS 1-2-1® and 1-2-n®", currently in the industrialization phase, allows the operating system of the terminal or ship, with which it interfaces perfectly, to remotely manage all the operations of connection and disconnection of electrical power and data lines on refrigerated containers. Its Operating System also maintains a complete operating parameters and the state of the reefer monitoring by the integrated IDENTEC ReeferRunner system.
Last but not least, SMART-rfRACK™, a reefer tower produced by our partner Nuova ICOM based on CONNEXTAINER® patent, completes the set of products dedicated to the management of
refrigerated containers. The modules of this reefer tower are built entirely in our partner factory in Cagliari, shipped by normal container transport means and assembled using the terminal handling equipments. The operations of assembly and preparation of these reefer towers procedure of work times enormously less than those necessary for the construction of traditional reefer towers. The SMART-rfRACK™ modules are integrated and perfectly prepared for the installation of the ARMS Automation systems.
Copyright © 2025. All rights reserved. Informa Markets, a trading division of Informa PLC.