Workshop objectives:
To learn about the dockside container cranes of Felixstowe
To make a dockside container crane
To visit Beacon Hill Battery to view Felixstowe and explore the Fort
The idea of STEAM Powered Education's workshops are to introduce children to a STEAM theme of local interest. We choose the local industrial, historical and museum venues for our focus workshop theme. We make the product in the morning, then visit the site in the afternoon.
This workshop focused on the Port of Felixstowe and in particular, the dockside container cranes that load and unload the containers from the incredibly large container ships that dock along side. Incidentally, the 'Ever Given' container ship that blocked the Suez Canal is a regular visitor to Felixstowe. Fully loaded she is 219,000 tonnes. The latest are 235,000 tonnes.
Finding crane kits nowadays, is a bit tricky with many around but not either the right price or the correct design. Therefore, I decided to make my own hoping that the price was manageble for the cost of the workshop.
Initially, I wanted the crane to lift but the added complexity to this would not really fit to a morning's activity. I managed to make a simpler version of the crane with a working forward and backwards trolley and a simple up and down lifting cable going through the center of the trolley. The most exciting discovery was the forward and back switches which were cheap enough to add to the crane without having to charge a fortune.
After managing to make the crane work and totalling up the costs, I thought that this workshop could be a reality. It's such an exciting moment when you realise that your design and the experience over the five years of your company's history, has paid off.
The total amount of time it takes to make the crane would exceed one morning so would have to change it to a 1 and a half day workshop. The first day we would make the crane frame and visit Beacon Hill Battery and the second day we would put the electrics in.
As it turned out, we had to swap the days around so that we did our main making in day one and our visit to Beacon Hill Battery on day two. This was purely a logistics problem as there was a miscommunication with the minibus company.
Construction of the frame went fairly smoothly and the frames were completed by about half way through the day. The electrics was a bit trickier as they reverse switches had to be connected in the right way, the blue leads to the battery and the red and black to the motor. Once connected correctly, the students began to get a lot of satisfaction playing with the direction of the motors.
The last part was connecting up the motors, switches, battery packs, pulley wheels and string to move the trolley and for the lifting cable.
Lessons learnt
Time as per usual was an issue. I would have liked to spend a bit more time discussing the amazing port of Felixstowe with its dockside cranes that are on rails and it smaller container yard cranes as well as how the containers could be dropped straight onto a lorry from the dock.
Damage limitation regarding the miscommunication over the minibus created a longer day than I was hoping for. Experience has led me to understand that beyond 1.00pm, Primary aged children find it difficult to concentrate and are therefore very unproductive, hence the breaking up of the day with a trip and something less mentally taxing.
Finishing the cranes took longer than expected. During the morning of the second day and afterward the visit we were still finishing the pulley wheel system and electrics.
Despite the problems, the design of the crane and electics was sound and the children had a great time when they worked. The reverse switches gave complete control and the geared motors slowed the turning motiong to a sensible speed.
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