British company Heatric Ltd. from Poole, Dorset is a worldwide active specialist for heat exchanger in the petrochemical industry. Nearly every well-known oil company uses Heatric products. The good business of the company founded in 1990 now made a production site and also production hall extension necessary.

Since more then 10 years Heatric is being serviced by independent crane construction specialist Granada Material Handling from Rochdale, Lancashire in questions of hoisting and internal logistics. The conceptual design and realisation of two 30t and two 60t overhead cranes was also commissioned to Granada.

The two 30t double girder cranes run on a separate crane runway next to the two 60t cranes. The span widths are 13 and 15 meters. All bridges were each equipped with two electric wire rope hoists NOVA by SWF Krantechnik from Mannheim. The 15t and 30t hoists respectively are linked in their group so that they can be operated in tandem mode. This is also possible for the two crane bridges. Should one of the hoists fail to operate properly, the others will automatically stop as a means of safety. The linking is rendered possible by the automatic hoist monitoring system NovaMaster, which also has other advantages for the user. The actual load on hook is continually monitored and given on a large display for the crane driver. The data is also given via an LCD display on the control switch. It also shows save working period (SWP), state of the brakes, the number of starts and stops and the continually monitored temperature of the hoisting motors.

Modern and for SWF standard frequency inverter control technology ensures a stepless and therefore gentle moving of the loads in trolley and crane drive. An additional infrared anti-collision-system prevents a crash of the crane bridges. When the crane is used in tandem mode, only one control switch is active in order to prevent a mal-steering with the second switch.

The building is now 60 meters long, 20 meters more than before. The existing cranes were integrated in the extension. Only the power supply for all cranes was newly installed by Granada. But the old hoist’s ultimate loads are 10t and 30t, which means that they can be moved onto the new crane area, but on the other hand the new, heavier bridges can not be moved onto the old area. Limit switches ensure the stopping of the new crane bridges in time.

Interestingly, Heatric measures their products by weight and sells them accordingly. Therefore the electronic weighing device was calibrated for a maximum tolerance of +/- 1 % for the actual load on hook.

The crane bridges are also equipped with an end-to-end servicing platform on the main beam for save inspection. 400 W headlights on the lower side of the cranes ensure an even illumination of the working area, even when the crane comes to a halt under a light-band.

The maximum possible room use was one of the reasons for using the electric wire rope hoists NOVA from Mannheim, which make a positioning of the crane bridge close to the ceiling possible due to their very compact dimension. In order to protect the hoists against the convection-heat of the heating system in the ceiling – in case a crane should come to a halt directly under it for a longer time – a heat-reflecting shield was installed over the trolleys