Every day, workers in a number of different industries rely on specialized equipment to make their jobs easier. Rail-mounted gantry cranes are one such piece of equipment. The purpose of these cranes is to make the task of lifting heavy objects and moving them around much more efficient. The section that follows takes a closer look at exactly what these cranes are and how they work.
Gantry cranes are special cranes that are designed with a bridge-like structure. They feature two legs that are connected at the top by a horizontal beam. A trolley travels back and forth along this beam, carrying a hoist along with it.
What makes rail-mounted gantry cranes unique is the fact that they are equipped with special wheels at the bottom of each leg. These wheels are similar to the ones that are used on train cars. This allows the gantry crane to run on tracks https://crane.pk/rail-mounted-gantry-crane/
Thanks to their ability to move back and forth along the length of the tracks, gantry cranes can be used to pick up heavy objects and move them to another location. For instance, in a shipping yard, one of these gantry cranes could pick a shipping container up at one end of the track and move the container to a truck that was waiting at the other end of the track.
The cranes themselves are designed to straddle the item that is being lifted. In essence, the crane operator positions the crane over the object. Once the main body of the crane is in place, they then align the trolley with the object so that it can be attached to the hoist and lifted up above the ground.
Once the object is in the air, it not only can be moved back and forth along the length of the beam at the top of the crane but it also can be moved along the length of the tracks by moving the entire crane on the attached wheels.
Along with rail-mounted gantry cranes, there are also rubber-tired gantry cranes available. Cranes with rubber tires can be used on any flat, smooth surface since they don’t run on tracks. However, they usually are not capable of lifting quite as much weight as rail-mounted cranes. In fact, one of the benefits of rail mounted gantry cranes is that they are usually capable of lifting and moving a tremendous amount of weight. The metal wheels attached to the crane are extremely durable, which often provides them with a higher lifting capacity than cranes with rubber wheels.
Hopefully, this introduction to rail-mounted gantry cranes gives you a better idea of what they are. If you really want to learn more about how these cranes work, try visiting a major shipping port. There is nothing quite like seeing one of these cranes in action to get a better idea of exactly how they are put together and what they are designed to do. If you don’t live near a shipping port, you can also look up videos online that clearly show these cranes at work.