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The “work smarter not harder” mantra seems to have pervaded all areas of industry. Fortunately the opportunities for the use of workstation cranes is also becoming wider with a greater choice of structural materials, lifting capacities and installation options all helping to open up the workplace to new solutions. Simon Hastelow reports.

Mostly found in manufacturing plants handling assembly of heavy objects, a workstation crane is fixed in position but allows the operator to lift, rotate and position loads ranging from 50kg to over 2,000kg. The hoist and trolley can be either manually operated or powered but all are designed to take over the heavy lifting to improve worker safety and improve ergonomics. There are three main types of workstation crane: gantry, bridge and jib.

A gantry crane is usually a free-standing, floor-supported structure, the beam is supported by legs which run on wheels or rails in the floor. The bridge crane locates the beam on rails built into the buildings structure or mounted on vertical columns, the trolley and hoist cam move side-to-side along the beam fully operating within a rectangular area defined by the supported rails. The jib crane can be floor or wall mounted and features a cantilevered bridge supported on a vertical column. The hoist and trolley move along the bridge and can cover an arc described from the centre column. It is fair to say that up to a few years ago the main considerations for the design, installation and use of a workstation crane boiled down to what the structure of the surrounding building could accommodate. Floor-standing steel structures required substantial reinforced concrete foundations and ceiling-mounted rails required a survey of the building structure to ensure it could support the desired use.

The introduction of aluminium columns, supports and rails has reduced these requirements somewhat but with the tradeoff of offering lower lifting capacities and shorter span or jib lengths.

HSI Crane, based in Illinois, USA offer a foundationless solution that eliminates the disruption and cost of laying a reinforced concrete foundation.

Workstation cranes is becoming wider with a greater choice of structural materials