Application-specific hoists and cranes are helping Sandvik Hard Materials to boost production efficiency at its plant in Epinouze in France.

Konecranes recently upgraded the lifting systems, providing a total of 25 new cranes and hoists.

The company produces a wide range of cemented-carbide tools and components for automotive, aerospace, paper and other industrial sectors.

Konecranes configured five of the lifting systems specially for this application, to fit into the restricted spaces available, and provide the optimum lifting automation.

Among these lifting systems is a runway-mounted 1t version of the XM crane that is used for changing tools on production machinery. The main machine shop has a low roof, so Sandvik designed a custom double-beam arrangement for suspending the hoist between the runways, to achieve the lifting heights needed. The solution allows a single crane to serve a much larger set of machines, improving productivity.

A further improvement in lifting efficiency was provided by Konecranes' SXN dual chain hoist: one hoist lifts the tool, the second is fitted with a frequency inverter drive which is then used to provide precision rotation of the load.