Modern Mining January 2020

PRODUCT News

Crane upgrade by Konecranes saves on costs brake systems were also added to all of the plant’s hot metal cranes.

savings and the extension of the crane’s lifespan,” he said. Based on the analysis report, Kone­ cranes modernised the Wolff crane through the design and manufacture of a com- pletely new crab assembly that would fit into the existing girders. The existing gird- ers were also repaired, shot blasted and painted at the Konecranes factory. Konecranes designed a new long travel drive unit to replace the outdated drive, as well as a new E-House which replaced the old Pyromex controls with ABB drives. All of these elements were designed to fit the customer’s existing crane. “A Crane Reliability Study is an important element that must be undertaken in order for us to properly assess the state of the crane and related components for perfor- mance, lifespan, productivity and financial viability. It is a key part of the Konecranes service offering, and is a useful tool for cus- tomers to keep abreast of the state of their crane operations. For example, the girders on this project had cracks that had to be repaired, and it made sense to repair rather than replace based on our analysis and ulti- mately contributed to the cost efficiencies achieved,” concluded Rautenbach. Jan Nel, Konecranes, e-mail: ServiceMe.za@konecranes.com

A Wolff crane that was installed in a local metal plant in 1989 was recently upgraded by Konecranes. The original crane had become not only a performance and finan- cial liability but raised concerns about operational safety. Originally designed and built by Wolff Cranes as a 35T/15T class 4, double girder, 18 m span crane, it was used as a hot metal crane with two other 35T/15T Asea cranes that were modified in 1990. Emergency

“Once the Crane Reliability Study had been completed and the report findings fully discussed with the customer, it was agreed that it was more practical to have the complete crane transported to the Demag workshop due to the challenges of repairing girders on site and how that could interfere with plant operations,” said Alwyn Rautenbach, Project Engineer, Konecranes. “Upgrading or mod-

ernising cranes is a more cost-effective option than purchasing new systems and crane elements. The modernisation process is not restricted to older machinery either – it can be applied to plant expan- sion plans or increased production requirements. In this particular instance, the benefits to the cus- tomer of upgrading were a large reduction in safety risks, increased uptime of the crane, nearly 50 % cost

The Wolff crane upgraded by Konecranes.

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72  MODERN MINING  January 2020