OVERHEAD CRANES (INCLUDING RAIL-MOUNTED GANTRY AND OVERHEAD BRIDGE CRANES)

Crane Safety and Productivity Gains. Overhead cranes are the workhorse of many industries.  Whether moving raw materials, products in process, or managing finished product inventory, the overhead crane  provides unmatched flexibility and lift capability.  Unfortunately, overhead cranes have the same sway problem as any other crane, endangering workers and expensive equipment.  Damage from contact with heavy loads swinging out of control can be very expensive to repair, besides loss of service and production delays.

Control In Two Directions. SmartCrane’s anti-sway solution for EOT cranes uses the same algorithms as giant ship to shore cranes. Because an overhead crane can move in bridge/gantry and trolley directions, SmartCrane runs two parallel algorithms at the same time, independently. 

Full Speed Operation.  With SmartCrane’s algorithms controlling the sway, any load can reach full rated bridge and trolley speed with the load stable under the trolley.  After decelerating, the load again is stable after stopping.

Automatic Positioning.  Using position sensors for trolley and bridge, SmartCrane’s algorithm will develop smart speed reference signals to drive both bridge and trolley to any stored destination.  Positioning accuracy is limited only by the precision of the position sensors.

Control Options. SmartCrane’s algorithms can be effective no matter what method is used for operator commands.  Single-speed digital, multi-speed digital, and analog (joystick) control are all easily supported.  SmartCrane can supply custom-designed software to record and retrieve position destination, fitting the operator input devices) to the job at hand.

What’s Needed.  For any anti-sway, the trolley and bridge motors must be synchronous, with variable-frequency drives controlling speed response.  The minimum instrumentation is a reliable and consistent measure for rope length plus load cell for measuring weight on the hook.  While weight by itself does not affect swing behavior, SmartCrane’s software uses the load measurement to predict center of gravity and effective pendulum length under different load conditions.

Commissioning.  As with other SmartCrane applications, commissioning always includes a one-time set of swing timing tests, requiring a stopwatch and data taking.  Data recorded in spreadsheet form is submitted to smartCrane for special processing that supplies a small set of swing tuning parameters. 

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