Enquiry

WE ARE YOUR SOLUTION

Crane solution for saving structural costs and optimising floorspace utilisation.
Single girder and wall travelling cranes in 2-tier arrangement perfectly serve the purpose at the R&M workshop for coal mining equipment.

About the customer

The customer is a reputed coal mining service provider to some of the major Indonesian coal producers. Established in 1998, the company is currently the second largest independent coal mining contractor in Indonesia and offers services across all production stages of coal including overburden removal, coal mining, coal hauling, reclamation and rehabilitation. Being into coal mining, the customer requires a large number of units of heavy equipment, such as trucks, loaders, diggers, excavators, etc. Currently, it has a fleet of more than 3500 units of heavy equipment.

Handling challenges

East Kalimantan is the heart of Indonesia's coal mining industry and the customer has several mining sites in this region. Majority of the heavy equipment and machinery owned by the customer is being used on these sites. The customer was in the process of setting up a ‘Rebuild Centre’, which would be a dedicated facility for the routine Repair & Maintenance (R&M) of equipment and machinery from its own fleet as well as for stocking essential spares.

Being an R&M workshop, the nature of work varies for each type of equipment. Multiple equipment are being repaired and serviced simultaneously in this vast workshop. During routine R&M operations, heavy parts and components are often required to be handled at various workstations.

The customer was intending to use a combination of single girder cranes and semi-gantry cranes in a 2-tier arrangement. The idea behind using semi-gantry cranes was to serve individual workstations alongside the walls of the workshop where cross travel required is below 8m and the lifting load capacity required is less than 7.5t.

For the customer, the top priorities while deciding on the crane solution were,

  • Reliable cranes, which would ensure high level of safety during routine operations.
  • Optimising floorspace utilisation and reducing structural cost.
  • Cranes were to be designed to cause minimum obstruction on the shop floor.
  • Safe and time-bound installation and commissioning.

The customer required proper reasoning for the selection of particular types, capacities and combinations of cranes along with proven references of installations in Indonesia.

ElectroMech-Abus Association

Abus is one of the leading hoist and crane manufacturing companies in Germany and manufactures over 20,000 cranes and crane kits annually.

ElectroMech and Abus share a bond for over 16 years for markets in India and Indian subcontinent. The partnership is further strengthened when ElectroMech set-up its own manufacturing plant in Indonesia in the year 2017 to serve these markets jointly with Abus.

Solution from ElectroMech

We were in touch with the customer since the planning stage of the workshop. This proved to be a major advantage while recommending and deciding on a suitable material handling system and the structural parameters.

A careful study of various material handling requirements by the ElectroMech team and subsequent recommendations brought in new perspective of value selling. Our team suggested to use Abus wall traveling cranes instead of semi-gantry cranes which ultimately proved to be a perfect solution.

semi-gantry crane is supported on a leg on one side and its endcarriage with wheels running on the ground. Floor end carriage requires civil work for ensuring adequate load bearing capacity of the floor. This also impacts material flow on the shop floor and could create hindrance while moving heavy machinery.

Hence, a semi-gantry crane is recommended only when any of the parameters is beyond the capacity of a wall travelling crane. Wall travelling cranes being of cantilever design, do not create any interference with the shop floor activities. The customer was informed accordingly and was convinced about the merits of using wall travelling cranes with the help of technical data and cost-benefit analysis.

Our team recommended using a combination of one single girder EOT crane in upper tier and four wall travelling cranes beneath it (lower tier) in main factory shed. For the second shed, two wall travelling cranes and for the third shed one single girder EOT crane was recommended.

All the cranes are designed as per the European standards and guidelines form Abus and fitted with Abus hoists best known for their reliability and safe working. Due to the brilliant planning and appropriate positioning of the cranes, it is possible to cover almost every part of the workshop area with one or the other crane and ensure optimum space utilisation.

All the cranes have been provided with anti-collision devices which communicate through infra-red rays with the crane on lower tier and are equipped with load display units. These cranes have been commissioned and are in routine use at the R&M shop.

Total number of cranes: 8

Benefits to the customer

By opting for the recommendations from ElectroMech, the customer has experienced several benefits. The most significant ones are:

  • Savings: Considerable saving has been achieved in the structural and civil work cost by using wall travelling cranes instead of semi-gantry cranes. The ElectroMech-Abus cranes are light-weight and do not require a heavy support structure, which further adds to the saving.
  • Safety: The use of reliable Abus hoists and strict adherence to safety practices during manufacturing, erection and commissioning by the ElectroMech team is an assurance of safe operation of the cranes, year after year.
  • Flexibility: Recommending wall travelling cranes and an appropriate combination of cranes ensured high levels of flexibility much needed in an R&M workshop. This is particularly important when a large variety of equipment and machinery requires to be repaired in the same shop.
  • Clutter-free workshop: The use of wall travelling cranes instead of semi-gantry cranes has avoided trenches and rails running across shop floor. Smooth workflow and easy movement of equipment is possible on a seamless floor adding to productivity.

Challenges

  • Reliable cranes to ensure high level of safety during routine operations.
  • Optimising floorspace utilisation and structural costs.
  • Cranes designed to cause minimum obstruction on the shop floor.
  • Safe and time-bound erection and commissioning.

Solution

  • Cranes manufactured using Abus hoists best known for their reliability.
  • Wall travelling cranes instead of semi-gantry cranes.
  • Wall travelling cranes eliminated trenches and rails on the ground.
  • Best industry practices followed by the experienced team of ElectroMech.

Disclaimer

© Copyright 2021 | All the names and logos used here are the registered trademarks of respective companies. Certain data mentioned here is based on assumptions and theoretical calculations, hence may not be accurate in practice and can’t be considered as a claim by the company.