Anatomy of an Overhead Crane

The hoist unit is the component that carries out the lifting operation.

Hoist units are generally supplied as a chain hoist, wire rope hoist or belt hoist and are normally fitted with a trolley which allows the hoist unit to cross travel left to right along the bridge beam.

The bridge beam is typically either a profile or box girder beam which is connected to a set of end carriages.

The bridge beam is what the hoist unit traverses along.

Bridge beams are available as single or double girder configurations and with a range of different connection types between the end carriages.

The control cubicle in a crane is generally used for the control of the long travel motions and essentially connects the hoist and the end carriages electrically and distributes power to each component.

All of our overhead cranes feature a VFD (variable frequency drive) which enables smoother travel, setting of speeds and soft start/stop.

Typically in an overhead crane there are 2 different types of power feed systems.

There’s power feed systems for the bridge beam and power feed systems for the runway/downshop.

The power feed systems available are flat cable festoon, enclosed power feed (busbar), energy chain and cable reeling drum.

The power feed system manages the incoming supply as the crane travels.

The end carriages are what enables the crane bridge beam to traverse forwards and backwards down the runway beams.

End carriages are available for top running or underslung cranes.

The end carriage is designed with a specific “wheel base” (distance between the wheel centres) which is determined by the span on the overhead crane.

The travel motors are the component that allow powered traverse of the crane.

The travel motor is mounted to the end carriage and rotates the travel wheels which enable movement.

Control of the travel motors are generally from the overhead crane control cubicle.

The runway beams are the sections that the crane travels on.

Runway beams are designed for either top running cranes (typically a profile beam with a rail welded or bolted to the top surface or underslung cranes (typically a profile beam which enables the end carriage wheels to run on the bottom flange of the beam).

The control of an overhead crane can either be by radio control or pendant control.

Typically radio control is the prefered option as this allows the user more freedom when operating the overhead crane.

Pendant control is typcially supplied as a divorced system with an additional track mounted parallel to the bridge beam so that the operator can move independently to the hoist.