Overhead Crane Safety Systems Monitoring and Diagnostics

Overhead Crane Safety Systems: Monitoring and Diagnostics

Cranes equipped with variable frequency drives or modern-style radio controls have the ability to provide diagnostics and monitoring of overhead crane equipment either on the equipment itself or to users in a remote location.

Operators, and production or maintenance personnel can use a radio or belly box, mobile device, tablet, or workstation computer to view real-time diagnostic data, including:

• Number of lifts and cycles that the drives have made
• Fault codes
• Capacity of lifts
• Maintenance requirements and intervals for individual components
• System amp draw and voltage

Maintenance personnel can monitor the time between recommended maintenance intervals for individual components and also use it as a tool to schedule preventative maintenance to help reduce equipment downtime. For example, by monitoring the predictable preventative maintenance schedule of a crane’s hoist, they can help improve the crane’s safety by knowing when the hoist has reached the end of its useful life so that they can either rebuild the internal components or replace it with an entirely new unit.

This diagnostic information also helps maintenance personnel troubleshoot problems with overhead crane equipment, and gives others the ability to remotely access the data and troubleshoot for more complex issues or specialized problems.

Another advantage to having a monitoring and diagnostics system is that the crane can alert the operator, safety managers, or other designated personnel if it has been overloaded. An overload occurs when a lift exceeds the crane’s rated capacity. Overloads are prohibited according to OSHA and ASME B30 standards, and can stress and damage the crane equipment—putting nearby employees in danger if the crane were to fail.

If the crane is making a lift near, at, or in excess of a calibrated capacity, the drive system can send a read-out to end-users through a variety of methods, including:

• Displaying on the operator’s radio control or belly box
• Displaying on pendant stations equipped with an LED read-out
• Displaying on the crane itself, so the operator can read the load the crane is lifting
• Sending it to a remote laptop or workstation

There are also more basic ways to determine if you’re overloading a crane’s capacity, including installing a load cell sensor that measures the tension force on the hoist’s wire rope. When the load exceeds a pre-determined percentage of the rated capacity (usually 100-125%), the overload device temporarily stops the hoist so that the only further action the crane can perform is to lower the load.

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