DPW Maintenance Garage Gets a Lift
The Bedford Department of Public Works was working with architects on a new maintenance garage. Part of the plans included a crane system that would allow them to store some of the department’s heavy equipment and machinery, such as salt spreaders and riding mowers, up and out of the way on a mezzanine level when not needed.
Crane Requirements
At meeting with the architect two years prior to groundbreaking, the requirements for their custom crane system were described to us as follows:
- The runway was to be suspended from the above building steel.
- They required a 5-ton capacity
- The hook needed to be high enough to pick up large items from the floor and place them on the mezzanine.
The Underhung Hang Up
We determined the runway would be underhung, supported by a specially designed hanger system from the roof steel of the building. However, as our engineering team got to work analyzing the structure and specifications of the project, they determined the dimensions were too tight for a single girder crane with an underhung monorail trolley hoist. We began looking else where for the space we needed, and we found it – above the crane.
The End (Trucks) Is in Sight
The building’s roof was pitched, and by using a span shorter than the width of the building,we found the space we needed above the crane. This led us to utilize an underhung double girder crane with ACCO end trucks. To get the hook height required, we used the low-headroom ACCO Work Rated 5-ton top running trolley hoists along with a rectified DC hoist motor brake and a Weston type mechanical load brake.
We built this customized overhead crane in our New Jersey shop and shipped it to the Bedford Department of Public Works new maintenance garage site, where it was installed by our in-house crane technicians. Bedford, New York now has their new maintenance garage, complete with a custom-built crane system that offers complete floor hook coverage along with the ability to lift items from the floor to the mezzanine.
For more information about our custom engineering for overhead material handling or to get in touch with one of our sales engineers to get started on your own custom project, contact us online or call 800-642-7263.
