Automation, collision avoidance and scale systems are a few add on items that increase equipment operation safety.

Manufacturers of cranes for the metals distribution sector are designing their technologies to provide greater levels of safety for operators, and offering improved data analysis.

Cranes and handling systems used in the metals distribution category have to be able to withstand the rigours of lifting extremely heavy materials, as well as the ebbs and flows of production which result in intense, peak periods of demand.

As a result, suppliers are increasingly offering equipment with enhanced safety features, plus the addition of monitoring tools that ensure operators can keep track of the safe working period (SWP) of their machines.

Customers are becoming more aware of the need to monitor how much of the design life or SWP of a crane has been used up, and how much remains.

IMPROVING RELIABILITY

Dovetailing with operator safety, reliability is also seen as a crucial demand from the metals distribution sector.

“Technology has to be designed for the peak use period during the day, which may often be three to four hours of intense production. Averages don’t really work in this sector!”

Juan Agirre, Special Solutions Business Unit Sales Director at GH Cranes and Components, notes that customers are increasingly looking for reliability, as well as robustness, high speeds, sway control, plus accurate load positioning and identification.

Projects GH been involved with in recent months include for steel manufacturer Acerinox, which was supplied with five cranes and a motorised hook to handle stainless steel coils with tong.

In addition, the company sold one automatic crane for handling steel sheets with an electromagnet to a steel service centre in northern Spain, as well as ten cranes for handling steel coils for the automotive industry for Gonvvama in China.

Source: http://www.hoistmagazine.com