Glass fabrication company chooses Mass Crane to supply 7 new crane systems

UPLOADED: 8/15/2015

June 2014: The President of a local prominent glass fabrication and machining company is looking for a new building for expansion of his company. He knows that any building he chooses has to be able to accommodate several crane systems to handle his glass slabs, so he calls Mass Crane. Mass Crane visits his current site and meets with the President, his architect, and his contractor.

For the next six months, Mass Crane worked with the glass company and designed several conceptual material handling solutions for the different buildings and layouts suggested. Once the glass company settled on a building, Mass Crane then addressed the specific challenges posed by that existing building and the new addition planned.


THE CHALLENGES

1. The glass company has a requirement of at least 15'-3" hook height but a low obstruction of 18'-3". The hook travel needed is almost 50" long, and the 1/2 Ton push/pull bridges need to be ergonomically easy to move for the operators.

2. The glass company needs six of these manual bridges to operate perpendicular to the orientation of the bay, spaced tightly next to each other, with exact hook coverages needed to work with their machines below.

3. The glass company also wants to re-use an existing Mass Crane built 5 Ton crane that is in use in their current facility, but the spans are different and they can't take the existing crane down until the move is complete and the new shipping/receiving crane is up and running.

4. They also have several material handling needs in the rear of their new building addition.


THE SOLUTION

Mass Crane and Hoist worked with the building contractor to design, fabricate, and install a continuous, 225 foot length 5 Ton runway structure, supported from brackets off of new building columns. The runways support a brand new 5 Ton, 36'-4" Span, Mass Crane and Hoist built, top running, dual motor, electric bridge crane in the front of the building. This new crane serves as their shipping/receiving crane and was fabricated, installed, and commissioned early in the construction process to support construction and moving parts and machines into the new building.

One side of this runway structure, in the middle of the bay, also serves to support one end of a custom designed nested support structure that supports six (6) parallel, 1/2 Ton, enclosed track workstation crane systems and electric chain hoists. The super low headroom design of the support structure gives the glass company more headroom than they needed, allowing them to spin 6'x12' glass slabs without hitting the hoist, chain container, or crane festoon. Mass Crane designed a freestanding, building-independent frame on the other end to support this nested system and provide sufficient hook travel to suit the glass companies requirements.

A 1 Ton, 16 foot span, 16'-6" tall freestanding mast type jib crane and electric chain hoist was provided and installed in the rear of the building.

Once the glass company moves all of their production and inventory over into the new facility, Mass Crane will return and take down the existing 5 Ton crane and hoist. It will be transported back to Mass Crane's 20,000 sq-ft fabrication shop in Tyngsboro, MA. There Mass Crane will disassemble the crane, cut it down, and re-build it to fit in the new building. Finally, they will work with the glass company to install the modified 5 Ton Crane on the rear of the 5 Ton runways at a time and in a way so to not interfere with their production.


THE RESULT

April 2016: Mass Crane and Hoist recently reached completion on this project with the successful installation of the modified 5 Ton Crane in the rear of the building. This crane was built in 2006 by Mass Crane and had been in operation in the customer's previous facility. Mass Crane and Hoist took the crane and hoist down and transported it back to their fabrication shop in Tyngsboro, where the crane was shortened, serviced, cleaned, and painted to look like new. Then, so as to not interfere with the customer's busy production schedule, Mass Crane and Hoist re-installed the crane in the Glass Company's new facility on a Saturday, working around the customer's equipment and product safely and effectively.


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