Heavy Lift Crane Works With CNC Roll Grinder

Voith Paper's Manchester manufacturing plant has installed a 120-tonne crane from Street Crane to ensure efficient and safe loading and unloading of the grinding machine. The machine will grind and produce perfect geometry and balance in paper machine rollers of up to 115 tonnes. The crane will be used for loading and offloading vehicles and positioning rollers onto a CNC controlled Waldrich Siegen roll grinder and up-rated IRD balancing machine.

This requires precision movement and an auxiliary 10-tonne hoist is provided to permit rotation and final manoeuvring of the load. Major structural elements of the crane include twin box-beam girders for rigidity with eight-wheel carriages to spread the load. Hoisting is achieved via a heavy-duty crab unit based on a twin scrolling open barrel hoist design that ensures the hook follows a true vertical lifting path.

Programmable microprocessor controllers, along with digital frequency inverters on the motor drives, provide smooth acceleration and deceleration for safe transport of the load with no load swing. The overhead crane features a range of safety systems including audible alarm, flashing amber light and an anti-collision system.

Like all cranes from Street Crane, the brake operates on the first reduction shaft in the gearbox so that the load is held securely even in the unlikely event of a motor failure. A wire-free radio remote control allows the operator to adopt the best position for safety and visibility. A conventional pendant control is also provided as a back up.

ABUS Underslung Cranes Get Heavy With Antiques

A museum has chosen two ABUS underslung cranes to help in the movement of heavy antiques that needed to be restored. The Victoria and Albert Museum (V and A), London, approached ABUS Crane Systems to assist in finding a sensitive solution for the restoration of high value but often extremely heavy antiques, such as a bust of George III. The museum required a lifting device capable of moving a variety of objects from the most fragile works of art to heavy stone artefacts.

Via slings, objects would require being held in a certain position to have broken or chipped surfaces re-bonded. Precise adjustments would be required to ensure that the 'mend' is unseen. The lifting solution also had to operate within a basement room measuring 4m x 4m, and in order to optimise the available space, a bulky support gantry was to be avoided if possible. The V and A museum eventually chose two, which were suspended from the ceiling structure and avoided the necessity for a gantry completely. Each crane was fitted with two hoists, each with the ABUS ABUliner infinitely variable speed control. This arrangement offered a four-point lift and allowed the precision control in three axes that the museum had demanded.

The ABUliner not only allows the speed of the motor to be continuously variable, but it also boasts a very low minimum speed for sensitive operations and its smooth performance virtually eliminates load bounce or swing and extends the useful life of the cranes motors and support structures. Variations in speed are achieved simply by gently increasing or decreasing thumb pressure on the pendant hand set buttons. The crane system was supplied with a four-year guarantee and ISO9001 compliance as standard.

Elesa Industrial Castor Withstands Heavy Loads

Elesa's industrial-castor range now incorporates the RE.F5, a heavy-duty variant for light, medium and heavy loads over 750kg. It is suitable for tiles, asphalt and cement/resin floors where its rugged die-cast aluminium wheels, roller-bearing axle and 95 Shore A polyurethane wheels provide high performance and low roll resistance.

Applications are likely to include trolleys, machinery and other mobile equipment in all types of industrial environments, including production, machining, transport, distribution and storage. The RE.F5 series of castors feature fixed-plate, swivel-plate and total-lock-swivel chassis where the swivel mechanism incorporates a dual ball race for minimal turn loads at low speeds. Standard rugged chassis construction is of zinc-plated steel, ensuring smooth performance with a high degree of longevity within its -20deg to 80C operating range.

Other design features include optimal dimensions, which ensure the RE.F5 occupies minimal space with greatest ease of activation. Sizes available range from 80 to 200mm (d) wheels with dynamic-load capacities up to 7,500N for complete castors.