Cranes and Handling

Drives and Automation have carried a number of crane and handling retrofit projects, increasing reliability and reducing maintenance overhead.  Details of a few of our projects are shown below.

Following a previous project in 2010 where Drives and Automation were engaged to provide a turnkey solution to upgrade the existing slipring motors to inverter control and provide a complete PLC control system, we were again asked to update the Drives and PLC as age and obsolescence were now a concern for the customer.

The previous project had used Control Techniques Unidrive SP / SPM Inverter modules, which had proved themselves to be well suited for the role, and as a result it was decided to follow the Control Techniques upgrade pathway to M700 Drive Control Modules, Inverters and Rectifiers; with smaller standard M700 Drives being used for the hoist and cross travel functions.

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Freightliner has reduced downtime on its second Arrol container crane by replacing the cranes old drives with a new system provided by Drives and Automation Ltd.

With loads of up to 32 tonnes, safety was a major factor in the upgrade so DnA proposed a Pilz Multi PLC system controlling ABB DCS800 DC drives and the system was built into an existing control room on top of the crane.

Reliability has been improved, vital for a port which is handling over 150,000 tonnes of cargo annually.

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DnA replaced the cranes outdated slipring motor control system with variable speed control to reduce downtime and maintenance headaches.

The new control system housed Control Techniques Unidrive inverters, an Allen Bradley Micrologix PLC along with a safety relay and Cresall dynamic braking resistors, all housed in a Rittal stainless steel cabinet mounted next to the control pulpit.

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