Cargotec's newly-approved fully-automatic MacGregor twistlock offers significant safety advantages and time-savings in port; shipowners appreciate these features and commercial references are growing

Through its MacGregor brand, Cargotec has an international reputation as a market leader in developing safe and efficient container securing equipment. This continues with the introduction of its new fully-automatic MacGregor C8A twistlock, which has recently gained Germanischer Lloyd approval. "During the approval process, the C8A twistlock passed the strictest testing and performance criteria to which a product can be subjected," said Erik Stenvik, Director, Lashings.
 
"Maintaining our market-leading position as a container securing specialist requires continuous research and development," said Mr Stenvik. "We wanted to develop a design that successfully met or exceeded industry's changing operating requirements and all relevant ISO standards, without any compromise to safety." 
 
In addition to significant time savings in port, the new C8A twistlock offers important safety advantages for personnel involved with cargo-handling operations, because they are unlocked by the vertical lift of the discharging crane, rather than manually by stevedores. The C8A units also have a 'positive locking' mechanism that can manually lock the twistlock. This feature is used below lashing bar level to limit the peak forces acting on lashing bars and turnbuckles, and therefore increases cargo safety.
 
"By the very nature of their design, automatic twistlocks, lashing rods and turnbuckles are exposed to significant overload when corner castings do not comply with ISO standards, this can result in plastic deformations to lashing equipment. Our unique invention 'positive locking' safeguards the long-term performance of the ship's inventory of container lashing equipment," noted Mr Stenvik.
 
German container shipping specialist, Hapag Lloyd awarded Cargotec a contract to supply all the lashing arrangements for its new series of ten 13,200 TEU vessels, including 175,000 C8A twistlocks. The ships are due to be launched in 2012 and 2013.