A regional provider of truck transmissions, rear differentials and steering components was building a new facility for their transmission assembly. With several existing buildings and a variety of applications, the company had experience with several overhead lifting solutions.
“We have some I-beam cranes serving other applications in different buildings,” said the Production Manager. “It’s too much effort. It is hard enough to move the weight of a transmission – which could be 1,000 pounds, but then you’ve got the weight of the crane that doesn’t move very well. It is like pulling a wagon from one end of the work cell to the other.”
When it was time to specify a lifting solution for their new building, the company knew that Gorbel was the best choice. “In this business, you need an overhead crane, and in our experience, Gorbel is the best.”
One of the applications that would be served in the new building was a final testing station where fully assembled automatic truck transmissions are given their last physical inspection and a live test prior to shipping. The full assemblies range in weight from 100 to 1,000 pounds. They are dropped off just outside the work cell by a fork truck, where an operator slings the transmissions and brings them to one of two live test stations with the work station crane.
The company decided to install a Gorbel ceiling mounted work station crane with 2 ton capacity runways and multiple 1,000 pound capacity aluminum bridges. The system was designed to cover not only the testing cells, but several other work cells on that side of the building. By installing the 1,000 pound bridges on 4,000 pound runways, the bridges can work side-by-side without buffers, giving the workers a very lightweight crane that doesn’t restrict accessibility in any way.