Emergency Crane Repair and Modernization
Problem: A customer called on a weekend to request emergency crane repair services because their crane had stopped working and they had a 30-ton coil was stuck in the air. This was a major problem for them because if the crane is not moving, then the entire plant is down.
When one of TSOC's 24-hour on-call crane technicians arrived, they discovered that the tow bar mounted to the hoist/trolley had broken away, causing it to tangle into the C-track stub-outs during trolley operation and tearing the majority of the festooning in half.
Upon further troubleshooting, the crane technician also noted that the wiring in the existing hoist and bridge panels was in disrepair, as components were disassembled and wires were loose, tangled, unlabeled, and unorganized. This was the result of having various crane companies performing their repairs and services over time and rushing to get the job done. This disrepair was not only creating challenges for technicians troubleshooting issues, but it was also a safety hazard, as many of the loose wires were hot when the main power was on, and some wires and components in the panel had begun melting and even burning up due to overheating.
Solution: Our crane technician made a couple of quick repairs to get the crane and hoist running again and then TSOC's service team planned the rest of the corrective maintenance and upgrades during the crane's scheduled downtime, so the plant could remain functional during operating hours.
The first thing the crane technician did was quickly patch the festooning back together so that the load could be safely lowered and removed from the hoist. After the load was lowered and removed, they fabricated a tow bar out of materials from their truck and the customer and welded it back onto the hoist/trolley. Once the crane was functional again, the technician recorded all the necessary information so that the correct parts could be ordered (new festooning, C-track, and stub-out hangers) for installation on a scheduled return date.
On our team's first repair trip back, all the old hangers and C-track from the bridge girder were cut down and removed. As the new hangers were welded on, technicians on the ground prepped the new festooning by attaching the new trollies and spacing them accordingly. But due to time restrictions, the new festooning could not be installed at that time.
On the following trip, our team returned to complete the crane modernization. This involved removing the old festooning and installing the new one and routing it accordingly to the bridge control panel, hoist/trolley control panel, and a Bushman control panel for a lower block and coil grab device.
In the hoist/trolley panel, our team routed all the wiring making sure everything was organized and labeled correctly. They also reassembled the trolley VFD with its covers.
In the bridge panel, our technicians pulled out all the wiring and components, replacing the damaged ones and removing the old unused ones. Each circuit was then wired individually, labeled in all applicable ways, and routed in an organized manner. Then our team reassembled the VFD and even patched a hole in the back of the panel.
An added challenge to this process was that the crane system not only had hoist, trolley, and bridge functions, but there was also a collision avoidance on the bridge, travel limits on one end of the trolley, and a Bushman motorized lower block and coil grab - all of which were run from a remote. There was also a backup pendant, but it only operated the hoist, trolley, and bridge functions. It was replaced with one that can control all functions.
Result: This was an emergency breakdown call that turned into a months-long modernization process. Not only was our crane technician able to quickly solve the breakdown to get the plant's operations back up and running, but now the customer has a bridge crane that is much more reliable and they no longer have to worry about a fire starting in the bridge panel. And in the event of any new breakdowns, troubleshooting can now be streamlined thanks to tidy wiring that is correctly labeled.
Tri-State Overhead Crane performs emergency repairs and upgrades for overhead cranes and hoists. We serve clients across the United States, Canada, and Mexico and are especially focused in Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Arkansas, Mississippi, Nebraska, Tennessee, Kentucky, Iowa, and Oklahoma.