NEWS | NOVEMBER 2021


ACE INDUSTRIES HONORED TO PARTNER WITH US CANCER TREATMENT CENTERS


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ce Industries is honored to support the care of cancer patients, designing and installing overhead and


monorail cranes for Proton Therapy Treatment centers around the US. Ace has provided cranes for hospitals and universities in Washington DC, California, Georgia, Florida, and Texas as they adopt this advanced technology. Cancer is among the leading causes


of death worldwide. It is often treated with chemotherapy or radiation, although both cause side effects during treatment. Recently, a new form of radiation therapy called Proton Therapy shows promise in causing fewer side effects. Proton Therapy pinpoints specific


cancer cells for treatment using a proton laser beam without damaging surrounding tissue, in contrast to general radiation treatment, which is applied with less precision, affecting larger areas, including - unavoidably - healthy tissue. The equipment for the proton therapy


procedure is a powerful particle accelerator, based on the original Hadron Collider in Geneva, Switzerland. In hospitals with this type of therapy, a magnetic tunnel, up to 50 feet wide in diameter, funnels high-energy particle beams through 6” steel plates into each of a facility’s cancer treatment rooms. In the gantry room, which is a concrete


vault situated just outside of the treatment room, overhead cranes are used to install and maintain the proton reactor equipment. Installing cranes in proton treatment


centers can be very challenging work with plenty of obstacles to overcome for each job. Most often, the lifting equipment is installed while the building is still being constructed, making


Ace MD Anderson Crane Install


communication and coordination essential to success.


During construction, the lack of


pre-existing structures to support a crane or attach a runway requires unique solutions. Ace’s installation team coordinate with other site contractors to install epoxy anchors for the runway as soon as the concrete haunches are installed. In some cases, this means working around scaffolding used to erect the gantry room walls. With multiple rooms and cranes, this process might be repeated several times in a row. The hoists are installed after the


concrete is dry. Finally, the ceilings can be poured and finished to complete the room’s construction. In one case, a proton thereapy center at the university of Miami, which had prebuilt gantry rooms, presented a set of challenges during installation. With only a 6’ x 20’ opening in the ceiling and a tower crane to work with, Ace’s professionals had to think creatively. They ended up designing the cranes so they could be installed in pieces, then Ace’s team assembled them in the air before lowering them through an opening into the room. The cranes were brought down sideways to clear the irregular shaped opening in the ceiling. “Nothing was easy on this one,” says


Miami project manager Robert Taylor. “Too many contractors and not enough


Ace Sibley Memorial Hospital Crane Install


room. We were problem solving the whole time. The hole in the roof was smaller than our cranes but we had a game plan and completed the job successfully.” The Houston Ace team recently completed a crane installation for the MD Anderson Proton Therapy center,


one of the largest cancer centers in the world and one of the first proton therapy centers in the US, by planning in advance for the obstacles they anticipated would arise based on other Ace branches’ experiences with these types of installations. The Houston team avoided many


problems by prefabricating the beams and rails whole. Usually, the runway and beams are set on a concrete corbel in the unfinished pit that will later become the gantry, spanning the entire 40’-45’ room, then the cranes are set on top of it. In Houston, they set down a continuous corbel, kind of like a concrete shelf, and mounted a long strip of steel to it, and set the cranes on top of that. They had four different locations in the facility to install cranes and in this operation, they installed them all at the same time using this method. When the installations were complete, they poured in the concrete roof to seal the gantries. Because they stayed ahead of the game, they ended up considerably ahead of schedule. “It was a good project. With good communication, proper planning and execution it went off without a hitch,” said Conrad Lasecki, project manager, Houston, Ace Industries. Working with the patients in mind is


a motivating factor for Ace in this type of work. For example, at the Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington DC, the Ace team enjoyed greeting children on their way in for treatments. At times, patients would spot Ace’s team as they gazed outside their windows. With a reciprocated hand wave and a smile, it reminded Ace’s team how important this project was for them. Moments like these make the hard work worth it. ●


www.hoistmagazine.com | November 2021 | 15


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