A Guide to Workstation Cranes
You can also download this White Paper as a PDF (650 KB) for your own reference or to share with your colleagues

As your business grows, you will need to keep up with the needs of both your customers and your employees. Your existing customers may be placing larger orders, or your customer base as a whole might be growing. If this is the case, you are probably looking for an efficient way to increase your productivity.

Along with efficiency, you also want to ensure the health and safety of your employees. If they are manually lifting heavy products, or even light products in repetition, that will eventually take a toll on their backs and legs.

One mechanical tool that can help you solve all of these problems without having to incur excessive costs, such as more employees or larger facilities, is a workstation crane.

Quick Navigation :

Why use a crane at all?

What types of cranes are available?

Five things to consider when choosing a crane

Choosing a crane company

Why use a crane at all?

If your objective is to lift and move products without straining employees' backs, there are many options you can use. Along with workstation cranes, there are forklift trucks and traditional conveyor belts.

A workstation crane has several advantages over these other systems.

Forklifts have to drive along the ground using up floor space and creating the possibility of running into products or even posing a hazard to other employees who are on foot in the same areas. Although not creating the same threats, conveyor belts do often take up valuable floor space and can only cover one area with little flexibility to change or extend the system.

Cranes, on the other hand are generally mounted either in the roof or up against a wall keep floors clear and walking spaces safe.

What types of cranes are available?

There are three basic types of cranes: Jib Cranes, Monorail Cranes and Overhead Gantry Cranes. There are several basic crane designs: enclosed track systems, I-beam systems, and external track systems.

 JIB The most limited workstation crane available is a jib crane. A traditional jib crane consists of a long jib arm that pivots at one end. There are several modified versions of jib cranes including cathead jibs and articulated jibs. Cathead jibs have retractable arms to move around a permanent obstacle such as a building column. Articulated jibs have a joint in the arm similar to an elbow. These are often used to reach through doors or, again, around a permanent obstacle.

A jib crane can either be mounted to an existing building wall or column, or freestanding with its own column. Freestanding jibs can also be created to be mobile. The pivot can slew manually or be motorised.

A jib crane is ideal for stationary work when something simply needs to be moved from one spot to another. Examples of this include packing finished materials into boxes, moving a product out of one machine and into another or lifting a product onto and off a work bench.

Jibs are also useful to mount tools such as air tools or hydraulic process line tools. Any type of production where a tool is being repetitively used in a specific area can be aided with a jib crane.

Jibs are ideal for work in a small area. If, however, it is necessary to cover more area a monorail or gantry crane might be the right solution.

MONORAIL A monorail crane is a single rail or beam. This type of system is used to move products in a straight line. It can cover a much longer distance than a jib crane, which is limited by its arm length.

A monorail can be mounted into a roof structure or freestanding, meaning that it is mounted on its own support structure such as columns or a frame.

This type of crane is useful to move products in a long, straight path. If something simply needs to be moved from one end of a factory to the other, a monorail is the ideal crane. If the straight line movement still won't cover enough area, you might want to consider the benefits of a gantry crane.

OVERHEAD GANTRY An overhead gantry crane consists of a bridge between two side rails similar to an H shape. In some cases, these can be designed with more than a single bridge. The bridge travels along the side rails while the lifting device travels along the bridge rail.

A gantry crane can be mounted from the roof or freestanding. Freestanding gantry cranes can also be created to be mobile, although they are generally designed to cover the entire workspace so that mobility is not an issue.

This type of crane can also be used to move products from one point to another, but can cover a much larger area than a jib crane and a wider area than a monorail. A gantry crane could be used to load or unload trucks or move products in an out of multiple machines.

ENCLOSED TRACK An enclosed track system is usually a hollow square or rectangular rail with trolleys running on the inside. Trolleys are generally attached to a lifting device that uses manual, electric or vacuum power to lift your products. You lift with the hoist, but then the trolley must do the work to move the product along the length of the crane rail.

One of the benefits of this type of crane is that you can't see the trolleys, which gives it a sleeker look. One of the drawbacks is that the trolleys can be difficult to access for maintenance because the track must be taken apart and all trolleys ahead of the target one must be removed first. These cranes are limited in that it is very difficult to move them around curves.

I-BEAM TRACK This type of crane is designed using I-beams like those found in ceiling structures of many factories. The trolleys run along the flat surface on the bottom horizontal bars of the beam.

The materials for this crane are easy to obtain, but they are heavy, steel structures which can be difficult to install and put a large strain on the building elements on which they are mounted. Another issue with these cranes is that the flat surface of the rail can build up with dust causing the trolleys to jam up and have high rolling resistance.

EXTERNAL TRACK This type of a system has the trolleys running on the outside of the track, similar to the I-beam system.

Trolleys in this system wrap around the track which makes them easier to maintain as individual trolleys can be accessed without disrupting the others. Depending on the shape of the surface, these systems won't jam up like enclosed or I-beam tracks.

Considerations when choosing a crane

When selecting a crane, you will take several important requirements into consideration: application, manufacturing environment, physical restrictions of facilities, quality of the crane and long and short- tem costs.

YOUR APPLICATION The crane must be suited to your specific application. If you want to stack bags of grain onto pallets, you would have a very different crane than someone who wanted to lift a wooden board into a routing machine.

When speaking to a crane engineer, you should tell them how much your product weighs as this will determine the safe working load, or SWL, of the crane. They should also find out where you want to move the product to, and from where. Also, the duty cycle of the crane is an important consideration. Will your crane be working 24 hours per day, seven days per week, or will it work a standard 38-hour week with the occasional overtime? And during those working hours will it be lifting your product once an hour or five times per minute?

It is important to make sure your engineer has all the details of your needs so that they can put together a crane that suits your unique application.

YOUR ENVIRONMENT The physical environment in which you will be using the crane will make a difference as to the materials used in the manufacture of the crane. Will it be used indoors or outdoors? Is it in an atypical environment that is corrosive or gets to extreme temperatures? Is it going into a sterile environment such a food manufacturing? All of these elements will be important in designing your crane.

YOUR FACILITIES When determining the type of crane and how it will be installed, you must take into consideration the limitations of your facilities. If you are looking at a roof or wall mounted crane, you must make sure the building is suitable to bear the loads; if you are looking at a freestanding crane, the floor must be similarly assessed.

Although you will only have to do it once, crane installation should also be taken into consideration . If you have to close down your factory for several days while someone installs a crane, you will lose a significant amount of working hours and therefore finished products.

Once you have determined which type of crane you want, you should take into account your manufacturing needs. Your crane must suit your current production line. You might need it to move things around bends. You use a machine for items A and B, but then need them to go to separate places. All of these needs must be taken into account when selecting a crane.

You want a crane that works with your system; you don't want to come up with an entirely new system just to accommodate one tool.

QUALITY Of course, you want a crane that is engineered to meet or exceed the crane codes. You may want to look at the classification (rated from C1 to C9) of the crane to make sure it will be able to handle everything you require in terms of lifespan and duty cycle.

Some additional points that you may want to take into consideration are the consistency of the material used in the construction of the crane, the in-house quality control of the manufacturer, and the testing process. Many manufacturers in Australia may also want to see if the product is Australian made.

A high-quality product will last longer than a low-quality product. If you simply purchase the cheapest crane on the market, you might end up with higher long-term costs.

COST The price of the crane is only the first part of this equation. You also must add in the cost of installation, maintenance, and future needs. As mentioned before, every hour your factory is closed down for installation is an hour that can't be spent manufacturing your product. You may even have to pay for extra labour if the installation requires special tools or welding.

The Australian Crane code requires that your crane be inspected every 12 months to make sure it is working correctly. If you have a crane that is difficult to inspect or needs to be taken apart to be inspected you will again lose valuable working hours. And in between inspections the crane should be easy to clean and access for simple maintenance procedures. If one trolley has a broken wheel, you don't want to have to take the whole thing apart and then put it back together.

Once your crane is up and running, you expect to see an increase in productivity which will ideally lead to an increase in orders (and profits!). If your business continues to grow, you may have to move to a new factory. Will your crane be able to easily move and grow with your company?

Considerations in choosing a crane company

Now you've decided what type of crane you need and have a good idea of what you need it to do and where it is going to go. How do you decide which crane company will provide you with the best product? Again, there are several important factors to take into consideration including expert knowledge and post-sale service.

EXPERTISE There are very strict codes in Australia governing crane design, manufacture and testing. The rules are listed in the Australian Standards 1418. You want to get your crane from someone who knows and understands the codes and the laws. After all, one of the reasons you are probably considering a crane in the first place is that it is a safety product that can have a positive effect on your WorkCover costs.

You also want someone who will understand your specific application and help you get the right crane. If the representative from the company is lacking in technical and engineering knowledge, they might not be able to fully appreciate your needs.

SERVICE Just as you want your crane to last a long time and grow with your company, you want the crane company to be around and be accessible for future contact. If you have a question about your crane, you probably want to speak with a local expert instead of trying to time your phone calls to fit into another country's working hours. If your company does end up growing and moving, you will want to work with the original company to extend your crane and make it work with your new production line.

Now that you have determined the criteria for your crane selection, we hope you will take a few minutes to look through our website to see if an Altrac crane is right for you.

Download this White Paper as a PDF (650 KB)