Comprehensive range of tasks safely under control

At the Blue Paper paper mill in Strasbourg, two Demag process cranes ensure fully automated material handling in the new dispatch warehouse with a theoretical capacity of 15,250 tons at 100 percent filling level. During planning, it was important to take into account that the paper machine operates 24/7 and therefore the warehouse is continuously filled. As dispatch times are limited to 75 hours per week, the warehouse must be able to breathe and carry out retrievals at very high speed.

Two Demag process cranes with two independently movable hoist units ensure fast handling of the paper rolls at Blue Paper. Photo: Demag

This challenge is met by two Demag process cranes, each equipped with two hoist trolleys and vacuum hoists as load handling attachments. This is also the first project in the world to use two Demag automatic cranes, each with two independently movable crabs. Dr. Thomas Bönker, Senior Vice President Business Unit Process Solutions, comments: "The modern control technology gives us new possibilities here and further increases the handling speed at peak times - with a reduced number of crane movements. These cranes also offer maximum flexibility."

The two fully automated cranes with a track center distance of 27.2 meters travel on the same crane runway. The independently movable trolleys reduce the number of crane movements, although the high travel and lifting speeds of the process cranes did not have to be reduced. A total of four vacuum lifters are used as load handling devices. The lifting and lowering speed is up to 120 meters per minute, depending on the load.

With the new ABUControl crane control system, all crane parameters can be conveniently set from a laptop or table. Photo: Abus Kransysteme

Intelligent crane control

The new ABUControl control generation from Abus Kransysteme offers a range of completely new features. The highlight is the pendulum damping, which prevents unwanted movements of the load. The crane and trolley are braked and accelerated in such a way that the travel movement counteracts the inertia-based load sway, so that the load hangs on the hook with virtually no movement of its own.

ABUControl can be highly customized to the needs of the operator via the KranOS software interface. The user logs into the crane wirelessly via WLAN and can make settings for travel drives, hoists and all special functions on various clearly laid out screen pages. The movement profiles can be selected individually for all drives; acceleration and braking times as well as the maximum and minimum speeds can also be adjusted.

With ABUControl, all axes are frequency inverter-controlled; if there are several wire rope hoists per crane, synchronization control of the trolleys and hoists is directly included. Tandem cranes can be taken into account in the design, as can complex hall profiles. Obstacles and interfering edges of a building are mapped in the crane control system and the speed, hook height or special conditions under which passage is permitted are defined for all segments.

Each of the two cranes can store or retrieve reels with a diameter of up to 1,450 millimetres, a width of 3,350 millimetres and a maximum weight of 4.2 tons in pairs or individually. This results in a high maximum system performance of up to 100 reel movements per hour. The Demag warehouse management system is linked to the paper plant's material management system. This provides the crane control system with all production data. This means that the cranes can carry out optimization work at times when deliveries cannot be made: they then prepare delivery orders that have already been registered.

In the new Kliewe production facility, six CXTS Neo cranes from Konecranes ensure more efficient and safe transportation processes. Photo: Konecranes

Kliewe GmbH, Hamburg, one of the leading German companies in plant and pipeline construction, is relying entirely on the expertise of Konecranes in its new plant. Back in 2014, six CXTS NEO cranes were installed in the new 2,000 square meter production hall, followed by two more in another new hall measuring around 300 square meters, in which only black steel is processed. Kliewe's aim when building the new production plant was to optimize all processes, for example for the assembly, welding and loading of the pipes, including the lifting and transport technology. "We were involved at an early stage in the construction of Kliewe's new headquarters in order to optimally plan the cranes with the corresponding infrastructure and processes in the production halls," says Niclas Maassen from Konecranes in Hamburg.

"We are so satisfied that we have also opted for the CARE full maintenance package from Konecranes for the maintenance of the cranes," emphasizes Managing Director Thomas Kliewe (left), who is advised by Niclas Maassen, Konecranes in Hamburg. Photo: Konecranes

The six CXTS NEO cranes in the first production hall have lifting capacities of 3.2 to 10 tons, span widths of 9.05 and 18.9 meters respectively and lifting heights of 7.7 to 7.9 meters. The other two cranes each offer a lifting capacity of 5 tons with a span of 9.5 meters and a lifting height of 6.00 meters. All cranes travel up to 40 meters per minute, the lifting speed is 2.5 to 7.5 meters per minute, and the trolley travel speed is 20 meters/minute. Other features include energy chains for low cable wear, the "DynADrive" infinitely variable speed control system for trolley, crane and hoist trolleys and the "Truconnect Remote Service" for crane maintenance and reporting using digital remote data diagnostics. This includes a compilation of all information relating to safety, operating statistics and service life, such as work cycles and operating hours. Kliewe uses all cranes for the production of plant and pipelines as well as for loading pipe networks, steel, sheet metal and special constructions.

As Massen explains, "production is now safer with the new cranes and at the same time the efficiency of the transport processes is much higher thanks to the MiniJoystick radio remote control and the ASR hoist inverter". And Thomas Kliewe, Managing Director of Kliewe GmbH, emphasizes: "We are so satisfied that we have also opted for the CARE full maintenance package for the maintenance of the cranes".

Magnetic cranes enable fast, safe and material-friendly work processes and have become an integral part of the steel industry. This is also the case at Dewald Stahlhandel, which sells and supplies round steel throughout Europe. Together with the expansion of its storage area to 9,000 square meters, Dewald is now using two new magnetic cranes with a lifting capacity of up to 14 tons. Innokran, a partner of Stahl CraneSystems, designed and implemented the crane solution, which was specially tailored to the steel trader's work processes.

Customized magnetic cranes for steel handling

As long steel bars, remnants and short bars all have to be lifted and transported, it was recommended that a two-part lifting beam be used for one crane, which can be set at an angle. This means that either all four magnets are available for long objects or two magnets are available at different heights for optimum lifting of short steel bars. This solution requires a special lifting beam and two hoists, which can be controlled separately if required. The crane works with two 8-ton SH series wire rope hoists from Stahl CraneSystems and a magnet spreader beam from Scheffer. Christoph Fischer, Managing Director of Innokran, explains: "We were able to use CraneKits from Stahl CraneSystems for this special design and adapt the components to the special application at Dewald.

The second newly installed crane is equipped with two wire rope hoists, each with a load capacity of 6.3 tons, and crane components from Stahl Cranesystems. It is also used to move the long round steel, but its main task is to lift the cut steel disks out of the saw. The slices are placed on pallets and then loaded onto trucks by forklift truck. A special single magnet, which is hooked into the hook of one of the wire rope hoists, is used for lifting. The power connection required for this is located on the load hook. As the steel disks are vertical after cutting but have to be transported horizontally, the special tilting magnet allows the load to be rotated in the air, which makes handling much easier for Dewald's employees.

Kito electric chain hoists can also be used to handle robots for sewer rehabilitation. Photo: Kito

Electric chain hoists support sewer rehabilitation

The product range of ProKasro, a specialist in sewer technology and sewer rehabilitation robotics, covers the entire spectrum of sewer work and ranges from work robots to TV inspection systems, UV liner technology and the removal and installation of rehabilitation vehicles. The company was looking for a reliable device to lower the rehabilitation robots weighing up to 80 kilograms from the vehicles into the sewer system at a depth of up to 8 meters and found the ideal solution in Kito's single-phase ED electric chain hoist.

The chain hoists offer lifting speeds of 7.7 meters per minute, lifting capacities of up to 180 kilograms and lifting heights of up to 10 meters.

As the rehabilitation vehicles for the sewer work were already equipped with a slewing crane jib, the electric chain hoist could be mounted in just a few simple steps. The compact THM trolley ensures trolley travel. The lightweight aluminum housing of the ED is highly resistant to weathering and rust. The load chain is secured by high-performance mechanical brakes, and the integrated slipping clutch provides additional protection for the attached refurbishment robots.

Cranes ensure fast throughput times

Over the past three years, Pfeiffer Chemie-Armaturenbau GmbH has invested in making the material flow and all production processes more efficient. An important part of this was the purchase of new crane systems from Vetter. Pfeiffer has installed a total of seven pillar-mounted slewing jib cranes and seven professional gantry crane systems from Vetter. The pillar-mounted slewing jib cranes are used at self-sufficient production islands within the production area, where cranes are only needed selectively and in limited spaces.

The crane runways can be moved electrically in all axes in the assembly area, and the electrically driven chain hoists are controlled via a control panel. Photo: Vetter Krantechnik

The gantry crane systems are intended to serve several production islands, which is ensured by using several crane bridges on one system. This means that each workstation has its own hoist. All crane runways up to 800 kilograms are pulled by hand, all others can be moved electrically in all axes. The electrically driven chain hoists are controlled by a control panel.

The workstations are operated using a professional gantry crane system with a span of 8 meters and three crane runways, each weighing 800, 500 and 250 kg.

In the saw area, transport equipment is required at workstations arranged one behind the other for loading and unloading, lifting, moving and turning. Sufficient space is required to store and retrieve the raw bar material, which is 6 meters long and weighs up to 2 tons on delivery, in the drawer rack. No crane supports were allowed to be in the way. The P500 Olympia series double-rail gantry crane system with three crane runways with a load capacity of 2 tons at the material receiving end and 250 kg on each of the following crane runways met this requirement perfectly. With a length of 12 meters and a span of 8 meters, Vetter has achieved the maximum possible bay size. Further cranes are used in the assembly and testing hall: Five crane runways, each with a load capacity of 1,000 kg, provide support in the assembly area, and the three test stands are equipped with crane runways with a load capacity of 1,000 kg as well.

Reinhard Irrgang