NKK Corporation of Japan has developed its automatic crane control system which it claims which can be retrofitted on overhead cranes “at minimal cost”.
Based on the anti-swing and positioning control system introduced by NKK in 1994 for coil-handling overhead cranes, the new version features an anti-twisting control for loads during their rotation.
It has already been put into operation at NKK’s own sheet production line facility at the Fukuyama Works and is to be installed in a further nine cranes at its cold strip mill. The company expects this to result in a reduction of manpower equivalent to 40 crane operators, at a cost of ¥50m ($385,000) per crane to install.
