OT - The Big Crane

[Mcgyver]

Big for us anyway. Liebherr may scoff at the size, but ours don't fall down . Standard crane joke - we stand behind our cranes, but never under them

We've been making a lot of cranes lately, overhead variety, I invested in sub arc equipment last year and the area has grown. This is a biggest yet, a 115' 30T double box girder. Yeah ok it is a bit of show and tell, but I'm very proud the team that made this and you thought you guys might like to see some pics. Next up is an of 80ton crane.

Assembly. The tops and bottoms are 1" plate



115' long 1" plate flops around like a wet noodle - you can see oscillations in it from stopping the crane. This is the second girder, 1st is to the right



welding the baffles - you can see a guy inside - the box girder common joke is that's where they hide the bodies



finished girder being flipped - thats a 40y roll off at the end to give some scale



The two girders on their trucks



Walkway installed, painted and electrical being installed



built up hoist made us (meanings we machine and buy the commercials vs buying a pre built hoist)



It shipped yesterday - three trucks . One for each girder and hoist. Ended up being an all day thing loading

One truck arrives (the white one in the background is a min roll off truck body we just finished)



This thing looks huge on the truck....









With one girder gone, we could load the second inside - less crane movements



Key is the steerable dolly:

[Black Forest]

That is a great operation you have going there! I love big fab. projects.

[Tom S]

Wow. That's a slightly different scale than what you usually post. Nice work.

Can you say where they are going? I watched the girder cranes go up in the press shop and plastic shop of Toyota Woodstock while that plant was going up, I was interning at the time. 16T and 30T if I remember correctly. I also distinctly remember that the fellows who did the actual lifting and setting in place were native fellows, best ironworkers out there from what I was told. Real professionals who took their job seriously and did it without fear.

[Mcgyver]

that's the day gig....model engines and watch work at night . its going to a metals distributor

[lynnl]

Fascinating! Thanks for the tour.

When I see big, or unusual stuff like that I always wonder about the logistics. I assume pieces of steel like that are not bought off-the-shelf. Do you deal directly with the steel mill, or are there brokers specializing in such as that? How does that work? What sorts of lead times are involved?

[Dan Dubeau]

Awesome stuff. Glad to see some big stuff being made here. Well done.

[MaxHeadRoom]

Just out of interest, what technology are you using for the Gantry hoist, controller and motor?
Appears to be SEW equip.?
Max.

[Mcgyver]

Fascinating! Thanks for the tour.

When I see big, or unusual stuff like that I always wonder about the logistics. I assume pieces of steel like that are not bought off-the-shelf. Do you deal directly with the steel mill, or are there brokers specializing in such as that? How does that work? What sorts of lead times are involved?

you have to take a lot more ton than us to buy mill direct. Russell and Samuel would typical suppliers - they're both multi billions in sales. They're not just brokers, they're full DC's and also can do a lot of processing (i.e. cut length, leveling and cutting coils, etc). For things like bins we'll buy by the coil, but you have to take a lot of coils to buy from the mill. For the most part you call them and a truck is there the next day or day after

[mattthemuppet]

wow! I was going to say that I bet the truck drivers are super careful not to make a wrong turn on their trip until I saw the steerable dolly bit. I would have thought the trucking co. would give that guy a seat to sit in though..

must be hard work welding the insides of those box sections, tough on the body I would expect.

How does the final side (bottom?) plate get welded to the ends of the baffles inside? Presumably you don't sacrifice a welder to do each one, that'd get expensive in trained workers pretty quickly.

[J Tiers]

.......

How does the final side (bottom?) plate get welded to the ends of the baffles inside? Presumably you don't sacrifice a welder to do each one, that'd get expensive in trained workers pretty quickly.

That, and how to certify the various welds? This is, after all, lifting equipment. There might be a "coupon" for test at the end of the weld, but that is not so possible with a closed box.

[Ringo]

Gosh, how do you go about all the buy offs for safety, weight testing, verifications, engineering, OHSHA credentials, etc., etc.?
you need pedigree on the materials in it?
OMG !! whats the process to get that approved?

[J Tiers]

P.E. stamped drawings specify design, materials, processes, etc. Then fabricator must be able to prove they did the job with the specified materials, to the design, according to the specified processes and so forth.

For a contract fab shop, that should be their part of it. If the crane is the shop's design and product, then the certifications and approvals would become their responsibility, and not the designer and customer's.

At least, that is how the fab shop I deal with has it. They do tower work.

[Fasttrack]

Walkway installed, painted and electrical being installed

I sure hope you descaled that before painting

Very cool seeing that come together. Thanks for sharing. I do have some of the same questions as others regarding certification / approvals - will be interested to read about your experiences.

[BCRider]

I learned a long time ago to have a great respect for anything that would crush me like a bug if I got under it at the wrong time. And along the same line as that I have a lot of respect for a team like yours that can handle the raw materials and build something like this and do it safely.

Thanks for the tour and showcase of this overhead project. Had me smiling as I looked at each picture and studied the details of the design.

[enginuity]

That, and how to certify the various welds? This is, after all, lifting equipment. There might be a "coupon" for test at the end of the weld, but that is not so possible with a closed box.

Welder needs to be certified. The actual stress on the welds of a box crane are fairly low. PE would design up for a fairly low weld stress.