Patent ID: 7410339

Claim:
A transfer plant for sea-side and land-side loading and unloading containers from container ships at seaports, comprising: a vertical support which is propped up at the land side and a horizontal extension arm braced by said vertical support, wherein said horizontal extension arm protrudes across the ship that is to be unloaded on the sea side; and a horizontal conveying device adapted to travel in a lengthwise direction along said extension arm; a land-side hoisting and lowering device arranged at the land side and a sea-side hoisting and lowering device arranged at the sea side, each of said land-side and sea-side hoisting and lowering devices adapted to pick up and put down the containers and adapted to cooperate with said conveying device, wherein said land-side and sea-side hoisting and lowering devices are arranged on the horizontal extension arm; intermediate storage devices that are arranged on said horizontal extension arm in the region of at least one chosen from said land-side and said sea-side hoisting and lowering devices, wherein the containers can be put down or picked up by the land-side or sea-side hoisting and lowering devices, as well as by said horizontal conveying device; wherein said intermediate storage devices each comprise a downwardly extending support column and a horizontal swivel arm attached at a lower end of said support column and a carrying frame hinged at an end of said swivel arm away from said support column, wherein said carrying frame can swivel both into the region underneath said sea-side or land-side hoisting and lowering device and into the region of said two horizontal conveying devices into corresponding pick-up and hand-off positions for the picking up or handing off of a container; and wherein said conveying device comprises at least two horizontal conveying devices arranged generally side-by-side on said horizontal extension arm in relation to a lengthwise direction of said horizontal extension arm, wherein said at least two horizontal conveying devices are adapted to travel independently of each other and alongside each other between the land-side and sea-side hoisting and lowering devices in said lengthwise direction along said horizontal extension arm, wherein containers on each of said at least two horizontal conveying devices are conveyed generally side-by-side in said lengthwise direction of said horizontal extension arm.