Precast Concrete | Overhead Crane, Eot Crane & Gantry Crane
Tailored outdoor gantry crane & workshop overhead crane for precast concrete industry for culverts, manholes, slabs, panels, roof tiles and beams handling.
Precast and prestressed concrete products are produced by the precast concrete manufacturing industry for usage in a variety of construction projects. Precast concrete is made by pouring wet concrete into a reusable mold of a given shape, whereas prestressed concrete is strengthened by compression between steel bars. Culverts, manholes, slabs, panels, roof tiles, and beams are examples of end products that are utilized in water infrastructure, power plants, office buildings, bridges, residences, roads, parking garages, and other constructions. As a result, the industry benefits from widespread demand in a variety of areas, as well as the growing popularity of concrete as a result of its durability and efficiency.
A greater choice of overhead handling solutions are available to enable volume production of blocks, slabs, barriers, ducts, wall or floor sections, tunnel segments, bespoke casting concrete, or others , in the precast concrete plant and yard.
Two levels of cranes may be required in the manufacturing process, with overhead cranes spanning the entire bay and wall travelling jib cranes or semi-portal gantry cranes covering certain activities at the lower level. This type of application necessitates precise functionality and interlocking safety measures, both of which we have plenty of experience and knowledge. For the precast industry, stockyard cranes are typically single or double girder portal or semi-portal cranes with high speed travel motions to reduce loading times in a lengthy yard.
Fast cycle times, arduous duty, semi-automatic control, and variable environments are some of the essential requirements in the precast concrete industry, which often necessitate specially designed solutions rather than off-the-shelf material handling equipment, which has the following advantages:
Many of the solutions developed by EOTCRANEKIT for the precast concrete industry have benefited from smart control features such as:
- Anti-sway (prevents load/hook swing due to traverse movement).
- Rapid lift/no load
- The load affects the speed.
- Monitors the duration of design work.
- Examine the situation.
Customized overhead cranes and gantry cranes for precast concrete
How do you choose the best overhead gantry crane for your precast concrete yard? The following factors are provided for your convenience in order to obtain the best overhead crane solutions.
Overhead overhead crane s are critical to the productivity of your precast facility. The following are important factors to consider when developing a long-term, fruitful relationship with your next overhead crane supplier.
Precast Industry Experience
While each facility has unique requirements, it is obviously more efficient for a buyer to work with overhead crane manufacturers who are already familiar with the precast concrete industry's special needs. Specifically:
- True Vertical Lift: Does the crane manufacturer recognize the importance of providing a overhead crane with "true vertical lift" in order to ensure proper demolding of many precast forms?
- Multiple Lift Coordination: How will their overhead crane controls synchronize multiple hoists and/or cranes to allow precast loads to be turned or flipped when stripping off their molds? How will the crane hoists' load-summing capabilities prevent accidental overloads?
- Overcoming Mold Suction: Do the engineers of the overhead crane OEM understand how to accommodate the suction that can occur just before the precast concrete breaks free from its molds?
- Increasing the Duty Cycle of the Crane: A typical precast plant may spend a few hours at the start of each day stripping molds — that is, operating their overhead crane at maximum capacity. The overhead crane may then be idle for several hours while the next molds are prepared. Finally, the crane system may end the day at much lower capacities, having spent several hours moving freshly mixed concrete into molds. Is your potential crane supplier therefore recommending overhead crane s with auxiliary, lower-capacity hoists for these lighter lifting tasks?
Crane Performance in Precast Environments Over Time
In addition to the previously mentioned performance considerations, the precast industry can present a harsh environment for your overhead cranes. Our experience with precast concrete and stone handling has led us to develop innovative dust-protection packages for our overhead crane s, including fully enclosed motors and gasketed control boxes.
Turnkey Services for Your Precast Plant
Many of our precast customers take advantage of our turnkey services to overhead cranes for maximum efficiency:
- Initial consultation about your operations and material handling requirements.
- On-site inspection.
- overhead crane proposal, using standardized designs whenever possible to save time and money. When dealing with a unique application, custom engineering is available.
- Before installing an overhead crane, a civil or structural engineer will conduct a building survey and provide a separate proposal for any additional construction that is required, such as reinforcing your foundation, ceiling beams, or building support columns.
- Specify who will run electricity from the disconnect to the crane, such as an in-house electrician or the crane installer's electrician.
- On-site visit by installers to determine the logistics of installing the bridge and to identify potential installation bottlenecks caused by the layout of your plant and its permanently installed machinery.
- An in-depth presentation of the installers' requirements so that you can develop appropriate production accommodations.
- A detailed installation plan, including testing.
- Crane operator and rigger training
Lower Total Lifecycle Costs
We take a long-term approach to overhead crane ownership, beginning with a thorough understanding of your current and proposed material handling requirements, then appropriately sizing your cranes and hoists. We enable preventative maintenance with our cutting-edge data collection to maximize your overhead crane uptime and productivity. We help you avoid crane component obsolescence by vertically integrating all of our manufacturing.
Crane Inspection, Testing, Training & Preventative Maintenance
EOTCRANEKIT has extensive experience with large outdoor gantry cranes and rubber tire gantry cranes for precast products, in addition to overhead cranes. The travel speed of the gantry crane is an important performance factor in many of these applications, which are typically found in large stocking and shipping yards.
When it comes to maintaining your new overhead crane, you have a few options. Almost all companies with a maintenance department choose to have their personnel trained by the OEM in basic crane maintenance: adjustments, simple replacements, and basic maintenance, but keep in mind that the crane inspector should also be trained.
So, whether your precast plant wants to retrofit an existing overhead crane, replace it entirely, or expand into new indoor and outdoor facilities, carefully consider the resources and thoroughness your next crane provider will bring to your business.
Article by Bella ，who has been in the hoist and crane field since 2016. Bella provides overhead crane & gantry crane consultation services for clients who need a customized overhead travelling crane solution.Contact her to get free consultation.
