Crane forms an important part of various industries, such as construction, mining or others. If you own a construction company and are looking to purchasing a crane or hiring a crane company, you must make sure you have acquired all the necessary knowledge before making any decision. Here is an ultimate guide that will lead you to expand your knowledge towards different crane systems and their uses. Before that one should understand what basically a crane is.
What is a Crane?
The crane has been a part of the construction industry since ages. Cranes are essential for carrying out heavy lifting work and other construction, mining or shipping work. They consist of cables and pulleys. Depending on the applications a crane can lift loads of different categories.
Working of a crane:
For efficient operation and stability every type of crane must obey the laws of physics. The two most important considerations in this respect are:
- The crane must not move weights which exceed its rated capacity.
- There should be no movements other than the machine’s designated plane of operation.
What are the different types of cranes used in construction industry?
Following are the types of cranes used in the construction industry:
- Vehicle Mounted Cranes: Cranes used for construction purposes are temporary structures, which are sometimes mounted to vehicles, such as trucks for their easy movement. Truck-mounted cranes can travel on highways thus, eliminating the need of the additional equipment.
- Rough Terrain Crane: This type of carne is mounted to an undercarriage which consists of rubber tires which are used for off-road applications. With rough terrain crane, outriggers are also used for stability.
- Crawler Crane: This is another type of crane which does not require outriggers for stability. Unlike rough terrain crane, these mobile cranes are mounted to a chassis with tracks and have a lifting capacity up to 3500 tons.
- Aerial Cranes: Also known as sky cranes, these Aerial cranes are mainly used to lift heavy loads at height. These cranes are better than conventional cranes as they can do what conventional cranes cannot do. At a construction site, these cranes also help in disaster and risk management programs.
Features & capabilities of different types of Crane systems:
Here is a list of common features in the crane systems that one should consider before purchasing or hiring a load lifting company:
- Lifting Capacity: Each crane has a load chart. This chart specifies the crane’s capabilities by highlighting its features and variation of lift capacity depending on different factors.
- Lifting Range: Lifting range is as important as the lift capacity. Usually a range diagram is included in the chart. This illustrates how much boom length is needed to pick up and lift a load both at a distance and at height.
- Lift Angle: The load chart of the crane illustrates the maximum lift if a fixed jib is used. The maximum load capacity of a crane decreases as the crane goes higher
- Weight & Dimensions: The load chart shows all the dimensions of the crane including operational data, outriggers, transport weight, and steering dimensions. The knowledge is critically essential if the crane is used in a confined space. Along the top axis of crane, the first number is the vehicle weight. In next two columns, the arrows illustrate the weight load for each axle based on what accessories are loaded.
Conclusion: Thus, it is very important to study your requirements and different models available in the market before coming to a decision.
