Also known as overhead cranes or bridge cranes, girder cranes are commonly used in industrial environments. The distinguishing feature of girder cranes is that these consist of parallel runways along with a traveling bridge that spans the gap between those runways. These are ideal for applications where mobile or construction cranes won't suffice, such as manufacturing, maintenance work and many more. Owing to the effectiveness of girder cranes and their ability to cut critical downtime, these are one of the most widely used cranes today, with usage spanning innumerable industrial sectors in every major part of the world.
To specify, girder cranes are typically of two types. These are single girder cranes and double girder cranes, with the only difference between the two being the main beam of a single girder crane is one single beam, while the main beam of a double girder crane is one double beam. Single girder cranes are ideal for light duty load lifting with short operational times and double girder cranes are ideal for medium to heavy duty load lifting with longer operational times. This difference can be primarily attributes to double girder cranes having much more stability than their single girder counterparts.
Application areas of girder cranes:
- Aerospace industry
- Marine industry
- Defence and military sector
- Metallurgy sector
- Automobile industry
- Paper mills
Features of girder cranes:
- These are easy to operate and have the proper safety features for the operator
- Moreover, a majority of girder cranes also have the option of remote operation, i.e – being operated through a wireless device
- Girder cranes require lesser floor space, thus increasing overall efficiency at an industrial facility
- These work equally well even in adverse weather conditions
- These are resistant to moisture, UV rays, resistance and corrosion
- Girder cranes have a long service life and require minimal maintenance
- Owing to the minimal maintenance parts, these cranes have minimum wear
Safety steps to keep in mind while using girder cranes:
- These should be placed in an area where no construction or maintenance work is to be carried out.
- Various components of the crane should be match marked at every joint for safety purposes. These joints should be bolted only by machine bolts.
- The wire rope used for placing the cranes must be free from defects and fractures, this is to ensure that no unforeseen incidents take place during the erection process of these cranes
- The winches employed for lifting the crane should be equipped with ratchet stops.
- Various personnel safety rules like the use of flag barriers, prevention of unauthorized entry, wearing of proper safety gear by the personnel working around the crane etc. should always be followed
