Protolon (iQ) cable system chosen by ABB for the Port of Rotterdam

Prysmian Group has recently been awarded a contract by ABB for the manufacturing and supply of 11.000 m of cable system to be installed in 28 port cranes to be built by Künz (Austrian crane manufacturer subcontractor of ABB). The port cranes will be installed in the Port of Rotterdam, The Netherlands, within  the ongoing expansion works of one of the biggest ports in Europe  allowing Maersk shipping line to enhance its operating company  APM-Terminals' container handling facilities.

PROTOLON (iQ), the cabling solution supplied by Prysmian, consists of a new generation of cable systems designed and engineered in order to provide (by means of embedded sensors, measurement techniques and dedicated software tools) detection and monitoring of mechanical stress (strain and torsion) - both distributed and under real time conditions - of flexible and reel cables used in opencast mines and container cranes.

Developed in Prysmian Germany's R&D excellence centre in Neustadt and launched in 2009, PROTOLON (iQ) has received the "Industry Award 2012" (Industriepreis  2012) in Germany for the Group's continuous work on research and  development to find new or customized solutions and create innovative  products with high economic, social, technological and environmental  benefits.  PROTOLON  (iQ), already used in other projects like Vattenfall (mining), BASF and  Eurogate (cranes), has been specifically requested by ABB due to its  24/7 monitoring system, which meets the highest standards in safety,  reliability and prevention.

This award represents a key reference in Prysmian's track record. The  port infrastructure expansion project in Rotterdam is a first class  project with a huge scope of work as in the last two years in an area  equivalent to 80 soccer fields, named Maasvlakte 2, has been claimed  from the sea.