A South American shipbuilder chose North American Industries (NAI), Woburn, Mass., to design and manufacture nearly a dozen overhead cranes for its new facility in Argentina. The company serves the marine transportation needs for the grain, forest products, minerals, crude oil, petroleum, and refined petroleum industries. It also builds ships to supply offshore oil platforms and designs and builds ships for the passenger cruise market.
For the project, NAI custom designed 11 cranes ranging in capacity from 10 to 50 metric tons. The bridge and gantry cranes were engineered for several applications in the shipbuilding process, including the fabrication shop, hull erection, and the steel yard. Due to the shipyard’s immediate proximity with the ocean, several of the outdoor cranes were designed and build to withstand the highly-corrosive salt water environment.
NAI also designed and manufactured several built-up hoists for the project. These hoists were integrated into rotating trolleys, allowing the operator the flexibility to orient the loads for each specific fabrication operation. Below the hook, each built-up hoist has a spreader beam with magnets attached. All magnet controls were integrated into the cranes’ electrical systems for ease of use. Each of these hoists also features a single drive with dual output shafts to two double-reeved drums (twin hooks).
Joanne Karlinksi, NAI senior project manager, said: “As a North American company working in South America, it was important that our project management and engineering personnel communicated frequently and thoroughly with our customer. Our internal processes are well-designed and allowed us the flexibility to give the project the attention it required. Our customer worked very closely with us to ensure that all crane requirements were communicated effectively, and all the cranes were delivered on-time.”
Lift & Access is part of the Catalyst Communications Network publication family.
