The Requirements
Hoist UK have recently been working with UK manufacturing business A House of Stone who required our expertise to assist with the lifting and handling of raw materials at their factory in Lancashire. A House of Stone are an experienced stone manufacturing company who pride themselves on high quality craftsmanship from start to finish. As they import and stock a wide range of quality natural stone sourced from all over the world such as granite, slate, quartz and marble, we needed to provide a system which would cover all of their lifting and handling requirements. In order to do this, Hoist UK visited their site to get a clear idea of their handling issues and discussed all the potential solutions before deciding that an overhead crane on a free standing gantry structure would be the ideal solution to their handling needs.
Following the site visit and assessment of the customers handling requirements, Hoist UK were able to design an overhead lifting system with the capacity to handle the range of raw materials used in their factory. The challenge here was to give the customer as much coverage of the crane as possible in the working area, whilst allowing them to lift pieces of potentially large and heavy stone safely.
The Solution
Hoist UK provided A House of Stone with a single girder overhead travelling crane with free standing gantry steelwork which was mounted into the existing concrete floor of the workshop. The overhead crane was supplied with a Verlinde VM Essentials electric wire rope hoist with a SWL of 1.0 tonne, and covering an area of 8m x 17m with a lifting height of 4m. Longitudinal surge bracing was fitted in the free standing gantry steelwork to resist longitudinal crane surge loads when handling heavy material, with the free standing gantry designed and manufactured in accordance with relevant British and European Standards for indoor use. The crane structure was supplied in a Melon Yellow RAL1028 painted finish with the equipment CE marked and compliant to the Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations.
The VM Essentials electric wire rope hoist boasts dual speed lifting as standard with variable speed for cross and long travel motions and was supplied with a radio remote control system with backup cabled pendant for added safety benefits when operating. The system was completely designed, manufactured and installed by Hoist UK’s team of engineers before being commissioned and tested on site. Once installed, the engineers then delivered a system familiarity training session on the safe use of this equipment for the customer’s operators, and supplied a set of owners documentation detailing the safe use of the equipment installed.
Project Photos
A House of Stone
"We are very happy with the cranes Hoist UK provided. They have made our operation much quicker, much safer and have increased our stocking capability by around 40%"