Interesting link posted on another forum…
https://www.liebherr.com/en/usa/products/mobile-and-crawler-cranes/mobil…
You might like their site here if you have never checked it out Brian. Other crane companies have the same thing.
Here is a company we use at work frequently.
My experience has been the same. Even cranes designed as “lift and carry” units are seldom used for that. There is usually a better option available.
-Kevin
How might you put that piece into place, if it arrived basically assembled?
I get it that the crawler types can be much heavier than those with tires, …BUT what good is all that weight going to do when you have very long lever arms (very tall booms) creating big overturning moments when only ‘reaching out’ just a little bit.
I don’t think many folks understand how critical that can be,…including me at times.
Yeah, that would include quite a number of crane operators too. Just watch “crane fails” on you tube. Some accidents can be attributed to mechanical or structural failures and such, but some are pure miscalculation and stupidity.
Dan
That scene is absolutely not in any respect realistic for how that component would be installed with a crane.
As I said in a previous post, modern cranes are extremely complicated and loaded with sensors and redundant safety systems.
There is a reason why crane operators are so well paid.
If you have ever been on a job site with a mediochre crane operator, you will instantly appreciate working with a good one.
-Kevin
Back in 1970 one of my first jobs was to walk with the Peach Bottom nuclear plant reactor vessel from the barge at Havre De Grace, Md., to the jobsite. The vessel was carried suported on each end by a modified base of a 4600W. The load broke down on the I-95 medial strip.
So an urgent call was made to the jobite to have “pads for a 4600W” delivered ASAP. After a wait, a trailer load of pads roared up. Pads, you see, are those heavy timber beams linked together to make a mat to support a heavy cranes weight.
Unfortunately the “pads” needed are also the rectangular rubber (metal?) sections that make up a crane’s track. What we had there was a failure to communicate.
As an aside, the reactor vessel was basicaly a round cylinder that had a bunch of stubs to which piping got attached. The insurance company rep visited the load every day. So one of the iron workers got a ladder and penciled in a jagged line between two of the stubs. From the ground it looked like a crack. When the rep got there we were all standing around looking up at the “crack”. Insurance company reps do not have a sense of humor.
My first week on the job at GE. I was a Millwright-C (apprentice) Our task was to remove the catwalks on top of the tank to be replaced.
CWW_jan29_0018 by Edmund, on Flickr
CWW_jan29_0019 by Edmund, on Flickr
This guy set that tank in place like setting a milk bottle back in the holder.
Often times we had to work out of sight of the operator, say well into the roof area.
GEfaceAK_0010 by Edmund, on Flickr
With simply relaying hand signals we could place a piece of equipment, sometimes lowering it through a hole cut into the roof, with velvet-glove precision.
GEfaceAH_0041 by Edmund, on Flickr
GEfaceAG_0014 by Edmund, on Flickr
Sometimes I miss those days.
Regards, Ed
I once had to remove a cooling tower from the roof of an urgent care center.
The crane operator that showed up did not know the standard hand signals, and very quickly we had a bad situation on our hands.
After that, I always specified the crane companies we would work with.
-Kevin
Interesting ‘personal’ observations,…thanks
I graduated from Aberdeen high school, and knew Havre de Grace pretty well.
My question is was it the dam on the Conowingo river that kept them from barging that reactor piece up the river to the job site?
I don’t know how deep the river would be if the dam weren’t there. Total weight of the load was around 1000 tons if I remember correctly. The would also have needed a place to ground the barge to be able to lift/roll the load off the end.
Cranes and Steel Mills
Hey Brian and All,
Just 2 days ago I stumbled upon an amazing video (in my mind) of a layout that has some serious detailed history of PA steel mills. The owner has incorporated very historic/realistic operations of steel mills in western PA but also included the heavy construction side of these massive complexes
For Brian…this video has modeled heavy construction cranes…and the steel mill aspect that you brought up in older topics.
It was made by Mr. Stephen Bennet and he filmed Mr. Scott Woods layout.
Hope this give you several ideas Brian. (pay attention in the background…there are cranes everywhere.)
There are a number of cranes thruout this video,…per these examples