CRANES

EXCAVATING EQUIPMENTS

CRANES

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Cranes:
A crane is a type of machine, generally equipped with a hoist, wire ropes or chains, and
sheaves, that can be used both to lift and lower materials and to move them horizontally.
They are the best way of providing a heavy lifting facility covering virtually the whole area of
building and are mainly used for lifting heavy things and transporting them to other places.
Cranes are commonly employed in

Transport industry for the loading and unloading of freight

Construction industry for the movement of materials
Manufacturing industry for the assembling of heavy equipment.

The different types of cranes are:

Overhead crane
Mobile crane

Truck-mounted crane
Side lift crane
Rough terrain crane
All terrain crane
Pick and carry crane
Carry deck crane
Telescopic handler crane
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Crawler crane
Railroad crane
Floating crane
Aerial crane

Fixed crane

Tower crane
Self-erecting crane
Telescopic crane
Hammerhead crane
Level luffing crane
Gantry crane
Deck crane
Jib crane
Bulk-handling crane
Loader crane
Stacker crane

Gantry cranes, bridge cranes, and overhead cranes, are all types of cranes which lift
objects by a hoist which is fitted in a hoist trolley and can move horizontally on a rail or pair of
rails fitted under a beam.

OVERHEAD CRANE:
An overhead travelling crane, also known as an overhead crane or as a suspended
crane, has the ends of the supporting beam resting on wheels running on rails at high level,
usually on the parallel side walls of a factory or similar large industrial building, so that the
whole crane can move the length of the building, while the hoist can be moved to and from
across the width of the building
They typically are either of a single beam or a double beam construction.

Single beam overhead crane

overhead crane
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Double beam

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These can be built using typical steel beams or a more complex box girder type.

GANTRY CRANE:
A gantry crane or portal crane has a similar mechanism supported by uprights, usually
with wheels at the foot of the uprights allowing the whole crane to traverse.
It has a hoist in a fixed machinery house or on a trolley that runs horizontally along rails,
usually fitted on a single beam (mono-girder) or two beams (twin-girder)
They are particularly suited to lifting very heavy objects and huge gantry cranes have been
used for shipbuilding where the crane straddles the ship allowing massive objects like ships'
engines to be lifted and moved over the ship.

Gantry crane
A container crane (also container handling gantry crane or ship-to-shore crane) is a
type of large dockside gantry crane found at container terminals for loading and
unloading intermodal containers from container ships.
Container cranes consist of a supporting framework that can traverse the length of a quay or
yard, and a moving platform called a "spreader". The spreader can be lowered down on top of
a container and locks onto the container's four locking points ("corner castings"), using a twist
lock mechanism.

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Container crane

BRIDGE CRANE:
An overhead crane consists of parallel runways with a travelling bridge spanning the gap.
A hoist, the lifting component of a crane, travels along the bridge.

Bridge crane

MOBILE CRANE:
A mobile crane is "a cable-controlled crane mounted on crawlers or rubber-tired
carriers" or "a hydraulic-powered crane with a telescoping boom mounted on truck-type
carriers or as self-propelled models."
They are designed to easily transport to a site and use with different types of load and cargo
with little or no setup or assembly.
The different types of mobile crane are:
TRUCK-MOUNTED CRANE:
A crane mounted on a truck carrier provides the mobility for this type of crane.
This crane has two parts: the carrier often referred to as the Lower, and the lifting component
which includes the boom, referred to as the Upper.
These are mated together through a turntable, allowing the upper to swing from side to side.
These modern hydraulic truck cranes are usually single-engine machines, with the same
engine powering the undercarriage and the crane.
The upper is usually powered via hydraulics run through the turntable from the pump
mounted on the lower.

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Truck mounted crane
SIDELIFT CRANE:
A side lifter crane is a road-going truck or semi-trailer, able to hoist and transport ISO
standard containers. Container lift is done with parallel crane-like hoists, which can lift a
container from the ground or from a railway vehicle.

Side lift crane

ROUGH TERRAIN CRANE:
It is a crane mounted on an undercarriage with four rubber tires that is designed for pick-andcarry operations and for off-road and "rough terrain" applications
These telescopic cranes are single-engine machines, with the same engine powering the
undercarriage and the crane, similar to a crawler crane. In a rough terrain crane, the engine is
usually mounted in the undercarriage rather than in the upper, as with crawler crane.

Rough terrain carne

ALL TERRAIN CRANE:

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A mobile crane with the necessary equipment to travel at speed on public roads, and on rough
terrain at the job site using all-wheel and crab steering. ATs combine the road ability of Truckmounted Cranes and the manoeuvrability of Rough Terrain Cranes.

All terrain cranes

PICK AND CARRY CRANE:
A Pick and Carry Crane is similar to a mobile crane in that is designed to travel on public
roads.
The capacity range is usually ten to twenty tonnes maximum lift, although this is much less at
the tip of the boom. Pick and Carry cranes have displaced the work usually completed by
smaller truck cranes as the set up time is much quicker.
Many steel fabrication yards also use pick and carry cranes as they can "walk" with fabricated
steel sections and place these where required with relative ease.
CARRY DECK TRAIN:
A carry deck crane is a small 4 wheel crane with a 360 degree rotating boom placed right in
the centre and an operators cab located at one end under this boom.
The rear section houses the engine and the area above the wheels is a flat deck.

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Carry deck train

TELESCOPIC HANDLER CRANE:
Telescopic Handlers are like forklift trucks that have a telescoping extendable boom like a
crane. Early telescopic handlers only lifted in one direction and did not rotate.
These machines are often used to handle pallets of bricks and install frame trusses on many
new building sites and they have eroded much of the work for small telescopic truck cranes.
Their off road capability and their onsite versatility to unload pallets using forks, or lift like a
crane makes them a valuable piece of machinery.

Telescopic handler crane

CRAWLER CRANE:
A crawler is a crane mounted on an undercarriage with a set of tracks (also called crawlers)
that provide stability and mobility. Crawler cranes range in lifting capacity from about 40 to
3,500 short tons.
Crawler cranes have both advantages and disadvantages depending on their use.
Their main advantage is that they can move around on site and perform each lift with little
set-up, since the crane is stable on its tracks with no outriggers and is capable of travelling
with a load.

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The main disadvantage is that they are very heavy, and cannot easily be moved from one job
site to another without significant expense.
Typically a large crawler must be disassembled and moved by trucks, rail cars or ships to its
next location.

Crawler crane
RAILROAD CRANE:
A railroad crane, (crane car or wrecker (US) or breakdown crane (UK)) is a type
of crane used on a railroad for one of three primary uses: freight handling in goods
yards, permanent way (PW) maintenance, and accident recovery work
The basic configuration is similar in all cases: a rotating crane body is mounted on a sturdy
chassis fitted with flanged wheels.
The body supports the jib and provides all the lifting and operating mechanisms; on larger
cranes, an operator's cabin is usually provided. The chassis is fitted with buffing and coupling
gear to allow the crane to be moved by a locomotive, although many are also self-propelled to
allow limited movement about a work site.

Railroad crane
Railroad cranes are usually designed specifically for one of three purposes:
Goods yard cranes
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Usually the smallest of the railroad cranes, goods yard cranes were used in the larger goods
yards to provide lifting capability in areas away from the ground-mounted goods cranes
normally provided in such yards.
They were often small enough to be operated by hand, and were not normally self-propelled,
instead requiring the use of a shunting engine to move them into position.
Once cheap road-going mobile cranes were available, these superseded the rail-mounted
variety due to their greater flexibility and mobility.
Maintenance cranes:
The most varied forms of crane are used for maintenance work. General purpose cranes may
be used for installing signalling equipment or point work.
Breakdown cranes:
The largest cranes are used for accident recovery work, usually forming part of a breakdown
train that includes staff accommodation and recovery equipment.
These are large enough to lift derailed rolling stock back onto the track, although two or more
cranes may be required to safely recover a locomotive.
FLOATING CRANE:
Floating cranes are used mainly in bridge building and port construction, but they are also
used for occasional loading and unloading of especially heavy or awkward loads on and off
ships.
Some floating cranes are mounted on a pontoon, others are specialized crane barges with a
lifting capacity exceeding 10,000 short tons (8,929 long tons; 9,072 t) and have been used to
transport entire bridge sections.
Floating cranes have also been used to salvage sunken ships.

Floating crane

AERIAL CRANE:
Aerial crane or 'Sky cranes' usually are helicopters designed to lift large loads.
Helicopters are able to travel to and lift in areas that are difficult to reach by conventional
cranes.
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Helicopter cranes are most commonly used to lift units/loads onto shopping centres and highrises. They can lift anything within their lifting capacity, (cars, boats, swimming pools, etc.).
They also perform disaster relief after natural disasters for clean-up, and during wild-fires they
are able to carry huge buckets of water to extinguish fires.

Aerial crane

FIXED CRANE:
Exchanging mobility for the ability to carry greater loads and reach greater heights due to
increased stability, these types of cranes are characterised by the fact that their main
structure does not move during the period of use.
The different types of fixed crane are:
TOWER CRANE:
Tower cranes are a modern form of balance crane that consist of the same basic parts which
are fixed to the ground on a concrete slab (and sometimes attached to the sides of structures
as well), they often give the best combination of height and lifting capacity and are used in
the construction of tall buildings.
On top of the slewing unit there are three main parts which are: the long horizontal jib
(working arm), shorter counter-jib, and the operators cab.

The Component of Tower Crane

Tower Crane are used extensively in construction and other industry to hoist and move
materials. There are many types of tower cranes. Although they are different in types, but the
main parts are the same as follows:
1. Mast:
The mast is the main supporting tower of the crane. It is made of steel trussed sections that
are connected together during installation.
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2. Slewing Unit:
The slewing unit sits at the top of the mast. This is the engine that enables the crane to
rotate.
3. Operating Cabin:
The operating cabin sits just above the slewing unit. It contains the operating controls.
4. Jib:
The jib, or operating arm, extends horizontally from the crane. A "luffing" jib is able to move
up and down; a fixed jib has a rolling trolley that runs along the underside to move goods
horizontally.
5. Hook:
The hook (or hooks) is used to connect the material to the crane. It hangs at the end of thick
steel cables that run along the jib to the motor.
6. Weights:
Large concrete counterweights are mounted toward the rear of the mast, to compensate for
the weight of the goods lifted.
A tower crane is usually assembled by a telescopic jib (mobile) crane of greater reach and in
the case of tower cranes that have risen while constructing very tall skyscrapers, a smaller
crane (or derrick) will often be lifted to the roof of the completed tower to dismantle the tower
crane afterwards, which may be more difficult than the installation.

Tower crane
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SELF-ERECTING CRANE:
It is a type of tower crane, these cranes, also called self-assembling, jack-up, or "kangaroo"
cranes, lift themselves from the ground or lift an upper, telescoping section using jacks,
allowing the next section of the tower to be inserted at ground level or lifted into place by the
partially erected crane itself.
They can thus be assembled without outside help, and can grow together with the building or
structure they are erecting.

Self erecting crane

TELESCOPIC CRANE:
A telescopic crane has a boom that consists of a number of tubes fitted one inside the other.
A hydraulic or other powered mechanism extends or retracts the tubes to increase or
decrease the total length of the boom. These types of booms are often used for short term
construction projects, rescue jobs, lifting boats in and out of the water, etc.
The relative compactness of telescopic booms makes them adaptable for many mobile
applications.

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Telescopic crane
HAMMERHEAD CRANE:
The "hammerhead", or giant cantilever, crane is a fixed-jib crane consisting of a steel-braced
tower on which revolves a large, horizontal, double cantilever; the forward part of this
cantilever or jib carries the lifting trolley, the jib is extended backwards in order to form a
support for the machinery and counterbalancing weight.
In addition to the motions of lifting and revolving, there is provided a so-called "racking"
motion, by which the lifting trolley, with the load suspended, can be moved in and out along
the jib without altering the level of the load
Such horizontal movement of the load is a marked feature of later crane design. These
cranes are generally constructed in large sizes and can weigh up to 350 tons.

Hammerhead crane
LEVEL LUFFING CRANE:
Normally a crane with a hinged jib will tend to have its hook also move up and down as the jib
moves (or luffs).
A level luffing crane is a crane of this common design, but with an extra mechanism to keep
the hook level when luffing.

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Level luffing crane

DECK CRANE:
These are used for cargo operations or boat unloading and retrieval where no shore unloading
facilities are available and located on the ships and boats.

Deck crane
JIB CRANE:
A jib crane is a type of crane where a horizontal member (jib or boom), supporting a moveable
hoist, is fixed to a wall or to a floor-mounted pillar.
Jib cranes are used in industrial premises and on military vehicles. The jib may swing through
an arc, to give additional lateral movement, or be fixed.
Similar cranes, often known simply as hoists, were fitted on the top floor of warehouse
buildings to enable goods to be lifted to all floors.

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Jib crane
BULK HANDLING CRANE:
Bulk-handling cranes are designed from the outset to carry a shell grab or bucket, rather than
using a hook and a sling.
They are used for bulk cargoes, such as coal, minerals, scrap metal etc.

Bulk handling crane

LOADER CRANE:
A loader crane (also called a knuckle-boom crane or articulating crane) is a hydraulicallypowered articulated arm fitted to a truck or trailer, and is used for loading/unloading the
vehicle.
The numerous jointed sections can be folded into a small space when the crane is not in use.
One or more of the sections may be telescopic.
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It has a degree of automation and be able to unload or stow itself without an operator's
instruction.
A roll roader crane is a loader crane mounted on a chassis with wheels.

Loader crane
STACKER CRANE:
A crane with a forklift type mechanism used in automated (computer
controlled) warehouses (known as an automated storage and retrieval system (AS/RS)).
The crane moves on a track in an aisle of the warehouse. The fork can be raised or lowered to
any of the levels of a storage rack and can be extended into the rack to store and retrieve
product. T
The product can in some cases be as large as an automobile. Stacker cranes are often used in
the large freezer warehouses of frozen food manufacturers.

Stacker crane

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