Foundationless jib cranes on the rise, says Caldwell
24 October 2022The Caldwell Group has penned a white paper called Foundationless Jibs Enjoy Popularity Rise, outlining how the technology proves its worth in the 1-ton capacity range across a several applications.
The company says there was a time “when the mention of a jib crane installation of any capacity conjured up images of long consultations with architects and structural engineers, even before ripping up the floor, digging foundations and installing the product”.
But those days “seem to be a thing of the past”, insists the Rockford, Illinois-based manufacturer of lifting and other material handling equipment
Darrin Noe, director of sales at Caldwell and author of the white paper, said: “Foundationless jibs are a type of freestanding jib, but they don’t require a special poured foundation. More than that, they can be installed almost anywhere in a workplace that conforms to a manufacturer’s guidance. There’s no need to worry about the 3ft or 4ft-deep reinforced foundations that are nearly always required with alternative solutions.
“Foundationless jibs are different in that they have a larger diameter base plate and additional ‘upright material’, as one distributor put it to me recently, to help relocate the forces.”
The company says that foundationless jib cranes are generally reserved for a lower capacity. For example, the Caldwell-branded models are available in 0.5-ton and 1.0-ton capacities only. The 0.5-ton version has a maximum span of 20ft and height under boom (HUB) of 20ft, while the 1.0-ton version has a maximum span of 16ft and maximum HUB of 16ft. This, it says, suits them to a breadth of applications without ever having to dig deep foundations and make a crane a permanent fixture.
“That’s a point worth reiterating,” said Noe, “because the production flow of a warehouse, production, or manufacturing facility varies greatly, even week-to-week. It might be that a crane is only required in a certain place at a specific capacity for a period. If the 3ft or 4ft-deep reinforced foundations we’ve spoken about house the jib crane, it’s not a tool that can be easily removed, and certainly not worth relocating if its new workstation might turn out to be just as temporary.”
Caldwell say that foundationless jib cranes now come with a more comprehensive turnkey package, with all components included in the price of the crane. There’s no longer a need to go out and shop for the parts separately, particularly if an end user is working with a reputable manufacturer and dealer. They can now get a foundationless jib crane, tag line kit, special anchoring bolts, two-part epoxy – and even an epoxy gun – in one shipment.
Noe said: “Generally, we’ve monitored increased uptake through single-crane orders, which isn’t a surprise given the capacity and application situations we’ve spoken about, but we have had orders where a customer will be outfitting a new plant or new portion of his/her facility and these solutions emerge at the top of their material handling order list. That said, the marketplace will remain for low-unit, commodity, quick shipment-style acquisitions.”
