On a job walk with an on an off customer of mine was telling me
how he purchased an overhead bridge crane from his other crane vendor. He went
on to tell me how as this new bridge goes down the runway it makes a lot of
banging and popping noises. I asked if I could listen and as I watched this
crane go down the runway I noticed that
at several points in the runway where the runway beams connected is where the
crane was making the popping noises. I asked for a manlift, I harnessed up and
checked out the runway connection. I noticed that the runway beams height
different from one beam to the next was close to ½ inch. This also caused the
runway rail to not touch the runway for over a foot. This is what was causing
all that racket. Not only does this cause the crane to make a ton of noise down
the runway, even worse it causes premature wear on the rail and crane wheels.
It is important when you are purchasing a bridge crane to
ensure that whoever is installing the bridge crane and rail is installing
according to
ASCE requirements. The requirements are quite simple for a crane installer
to follow. Typically, your problem comes in when you are using a different
vendor for the runway and the bridge crane. If the runway installer is not an
overhead bridge crane company, they may not know the ASCE
requirements and the runway will be completely out of tolerance. That extra
cost of having the overhead crane vendor to manufacture and install the runway typically
will pay for itself over the life of the crane system. An out of aligned runway
could cost you thousands not including down time to repair wheel, and rail replacement.
Be sure to talk to your crane vendor runway
alignment. If you are having a steel building manufacturer install your rail be
sure to discuss the below alignment requirements with them or even better pick
a steel building manufacturer that is partnered with a crane company.
For more information on rail
alignment be sure to check out my other
blog post that goes much further in depth on rail alignment.
