OVERHEAD CRANE CONTROLS | TECHNOLOGY REPORT
IN THE DRIVER’S SEAT
Safety and productivity are powering the overhead crane control market. Lucy Perry investigates.
technology is rapidly evolving. Safety will always be a priority for the hoisting industry, but efficiency and profitability are also driving many of the features overhead crane customer’s request. And control manufacturers are going one step further, marketing systems that are retrofittable for older crane models. Over the last couple of years, control
A
makers have developed standard versions of the anti-collision, no-fly, and anti-sway functions first introduced as custom safety features for large-capacity crane models. Now, they’re aggressively addressing productivity with standard diagnostics and analytics features. As a result, overhead cranes are becoming an extension of the whole operation. “The overhead crane was always
looked at as a separate operating entity in the facility - a stand-alone machine,” says Dan Beilfuss, vice president of the Crane Manufacturers’ Association of America (CMAA). “Today cranes are linked into the overall plant processes and are sharing data” with each other and the back office. He says with enterprise resource planning software systems in the office, cranes can produce specific operational data. Warehouse management systems now link crane and facility, as opposed to recognizing and analyzing them separately. “The crane used to be ‘the machine up in the ceiling,’ says Beilfuss, who also serves as director of sales, Americas, for the crane solutions group of Buffalo, NY- based Columbus McKinnon.
30 | May 2022 |
www.hoistmagazine.com
s overhead cranes are recognized as integral components of the production process, crane control
R With Tele Radio’s ergonomic wireless control system, the operator can control the crane and load from a safe distance.
“Today it’s more of an extension of the
entire plant processes.” Beilfuss believes that makes the
process more efficient because it allows the crane owner to take advantage of the ability to measure productivity, output, and overall plant efficiency. He can determine how every department and all
of its equipment works together. “It ties back to data analytics: The
crane now contributes to the overall plant process through productivity,” he adds. The demand for simple-to-use safety
features has steadily increased over the last decade or so. Several factors are at play, say Beilfuss and Ed Butte, Columbus
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