The Requirements
Hoist UK were contacted by an experienced main contractor and specialist fit-out division of a large construction company to design and manufacture a solution for transfer of plant and equipment between the ground floor level outside of the building and into their plant room inside the building.
The challenge for Hoist UK’s skilled team of design engineers came from the safe working load requirement of 5,000 kg, which would require them to calculate the maximum cantilever that was possible within the permissible imposed loading allowances on the building and supporting structure.
Due to the load capacity of the runout crane and the lifting application, all travel motions needed to be electrically motorised and inverter driven (variable speeds) for increased control and smoother operation.
The installation was to be carried out in a heavily congested site in Central London which provided an additional challenge when delivering, installing and commissioning the equipment on site.
The Solution
Hoist UK’s technical team designed a runout crane which would safely enable a 1.25 m cantilever/extension with a load capacity of 5,000 kg.
In keeping with our ISO 9001 quality process, our technical team issued a set of approval drawings prior to manufacture showing the imposed loadings on the existing support structure for validation.
Once the design was approved by the client, the runout crane system was manufactured and tested in our factory on the Wirral prior to shipping to site in Central London.
The runout crane was designed and manufactured in accordance with relevant British and European harmonised standards.
The runout crane was supplied with our Eurochain VR electric chain hoist; a robust three phase electric chain hoist with dual hoisting speeds of 4 & 1 m/min and variable speed travelling trolley.
Hoist UK designed and built a control solution to enable the runout crane components and electric chain hoist to be operated from a single control handset. Due to the application a radio control system was opted for and the runout crane was supplied with an ergonomic radio handset with dual pressure push buttons to operate all crane motions, with emergency stop and start button.
The motorised travel drives of the runout crane beam and the electric chain hoist trolley featured a limit switch for slow down and stop functionality to allow for “soft start” and “soft stop” during travel motions. The addition of this travel limit switch was beneficial in providing a more controlled movement of loads and also minimised load swing during operation.
Hoist UK carried out the full installation, commissioning, proof load testing and certification of the runout crane on site in Central London and on completion the client and their operatives were provided with system familiarity training on the safe use of the equipment by Hoist UK’s lifting equipment engineers.
Project Photos
Hoist UK
“Hoist UK’s extensive experience within the lifting and handling industry really shows on projects such as this one. As one of the leading manufacturers of lifting equipment in the UK and with our own in-house design & technical team, Hoist UK are ideally suited to offer bespoke solutions for a wide range of applications.”