In modern factories, bridge cranes, as important material handling equipment, play a vital role in improving production efficiency and ensuring the continuity of the production process. However, the traditional equipment maintenance model often leads to long-term shutdowns for repairs, which not only affects the normal production progress of the factory, but also increases the company’s operating costs. Therefore, using bridge cranes to reduce the shutdown and maintenance time of factory equipment has become an important topic that needs to be explored and practiced in the current industrial field.

Dongqi Crane will share with you a crane case today. A steel distribution center in Redcar, England, customized four overhead cranes to improve material handling and shorten the center’s turnaround time. During the project, project leaders stated that maintenance downtime was critical to maximize productivity, so metering service hours for all crane movements would help plan proactive maintenance to maintain plant uptime and efficiency.

Steel distribution center customized 4 overhead cranes

The centres are position as locally accessible steel stock facilities that offer late and sections for use in engineering and marine fabrications or structural steelwork that can be cut, shot blasted and then painted prior to delivery to customers that will use the material in the next stage of manufacture.

The final product combines logic and innovation to ensure efficient operation of the distribution center.

High-rate material flows and special processing needs require more innovative crane configurations. For this purpose the crane company supplied four cranes of a twin-bridge design, with two connecting beams spanning 20m brackets, and a 27m crane bridge was installed on these beams to carry the two six-tonne cranes. This allows for zoned north/south and east/west material flows, enabling steel to be brought into the processing area and transferred through the shot blasting and painting process before the finished steel is shipped to the customer.

Central to the configuration are two six-tonne hoists on each crane, which can be operated individually or in tandem to cope with so-called heavier or irregularly shaped loads, providing extra stability.

The hoist utilizes magnetic lifting technology, while an anti-collision system allows the crane to move safely on a shared gantry. These units feature an audible alarm and a flashing amber light to warn of the approach of other cranes. There are dual floodlights on each crane, which can be operated via remote control.

According to the business, citing maintenance downtime is imperative for maximum productivity so hours of service metering on all crane motions will assist in planning proactive maintenance to sustain the plants uptime and efficiency. In addition, crane control will be carried out by push button infra-red link to comply with Tata requirements. Elsewhere, other key safety features include taut-wire safety lines to crane bridge platforms and ten safety harness anchor points at key locations such as panels, crabs and end carriages.

What we learned from this case

Compressing the downtime of factory equipment for maintenance through overhead cranes can have a variety of positive impacts. First, reduced downtime means the production line can run more continuously, thereby increasing production efficiency and reducing production costs. Secondly, the application of bridge cranes can reduce reliance on manual maintenance, reduce maintenance errors and delays caused by human factors, and improve maintenance quality. In addition, the precise handling of bridge cranes can also reduce damage and wear of equipment during maintenance and extend the service life of equipment.

However, there are still some challenges that need to be overcome in order to achieve the reduction of maintenance time of factory equipment with overhead cranes. First of all, it is necessary to ensure that the operating and maintenance personnel of the bridge crane have professional skills and knowledge and can operate the equipment skillfully and accurately to avoid unnecessary delays during the maintenance process. Secondly, the design and implementation of the maintenance management system need to be improved to ensure that its cooperation with bridge cranes can achieve the best results.