Employing ABUS cranes in the service of heavyweights in the mining industry

Heavy plants tend to be employed where mining takes place. Caterpillar produces many of these heavy machineries and vehicles and sells them globally. Pon Equipment (www.pon-cat.com) is Caterpillar’s agent for Scandinavia and for the Netherlands. The Swedish part of Pon Equipment’s business has offices in Gothenburg and Stockholm and they also have a huge central warehouse at Rosersberg near Stockholm’s airport. From here they are able to send required spare parts to one of their 14 repair shops all over Sweden at very short notice if required. Caterpillar components are repaired and tested in the Component Rebuild Centre at their Boden location, north of Umeå. These components are differential gearboxes, motors, brakes, and axles. Motors for mining trucks with payloads of 350 tonnes may easily weigh 12.5 tonnes.

The technical engineers of Pon Equipment rely on perfect interactions between ABUS EOT and jib cranes when it comes to transport these heavy components. 23 cranes have been installed in this repair shop of 5,600 m2: 4 EOT cranes and 19 jib cranes. Two are double girder cranes of the ZLK type with load capacities of 20 tonnes and spans of 15.8 metres and these are used to transport the largest and heaviest components. On the highest level of material flow one single girder and one underslung crane complement the two double girder cranes. The single girder crane of the ELK type has a SWL of 10 tonnes and a span of 17.3 metres whereas the underslung crane of the EDL type has a load capacity of four tonnes only and a span of a mere four metres. This type of EOT crane consists of a rolled section girder and screwed-on main girder connections. The crane tracks for this underslung EOT crane are not mounted on pillars but are fixed directly onto the ceiling of the building. Small trolley approach dimensions make it possible to use the existing width of the building to an optimum.

The 19 jib cranes on the lower material flow level ensure that smaller components weighing between two and three tonnes will be moved directly to the work stations of the technical engineers in order to be repaired and tested. The type of jib crane used, VS, features a sturdy steel construction and a solid-web girder with low design and is able to lift loads of up to 6.3 tonnes. Spans have lengths of up to ten metres depending of the SWL. Jib cranes generally are equipped with either ABUS electric chain hoists (loads up to four tonnes) or electric wire rope hoists depending on load capacities, too. All jib cranes at this Pon Equipment repair shop have electric chain hoists as the workpieces that need transporting do not exceed three tonnes.

Installation and commissioning of all the cranes were carried out by the company CarlHag with headquarters at Luleå. CarlHag is a subsidiary of the Swedish daughter company of ABUS, ABUS Kransystem AB (www.abus-kransystem.se). Pon Equipment know all about the importance of regular maintenance and inspections being themselves employed in servicing and repairing such heavyweights as are working in mining areas round the clock. Therefore, Pon Equipment entered into a four year service contract with CarlHag. Possible damage of the cranes will thus be spotted early on and will be remedied and will help to ensure that crane operation remains safe and uninterrupted.