A Norwegian wire rope manufacturer has had new markets opened up to it, simply by upgrading an overhead crane in its factory.
ScanRope’s Asea crane has had its capacity increased from 125t to 190t, which will enable the company to supply wire rope coils of more than 200t, says development manager Nils Teien. This opens up new markets in the offshore oil industry for ScanRope, Teien said.
Installed in 1976, the crane was over-engineered from the outset. Therefore, mechanically, only limited reinforcement was needed, and this was carried out by engineering consultant Finn Strom.
Motors and drives were replaced with a completely new drive and control system supplied by Control Techniques for the hoist, cross travel and long travel. Control Techniques’ $104,000 contract included hand-held stepless radio remote control, cab-mounted controller and cabling.
Two 120kW Unidrive variable speed drives are used to control the 200kW AC hoist motor with feedback from a shaft mounted encoder. A 6,150Nm disc brake is automatically applied when the hoist is not moving. Travel drives are 7.5kW (short) and 30kW (long) and a plug-in UD70 programmable applications module gives directional motor control.
With the additional input/output modules the UD70 limits the position of the crane when it travels out onto the dockside.
The upgraded crane, certified at 190t plus 10%, will be able to handle coils up to 250t with the assistance of a new 60t crane that will run on the same track.
