The cranes have a travel speed of up to 125m/min (410 ft/min) and hoisting speeds up to 20 m/min (66 ft/min). Travel and hoisting motions are both frequency-inverter controlled.
The cranes support the site’s work shot-blasting, painting and sawing raw bars up to 22m long. The cranes load the bars on the process line and manoeuvre them from machine to machine.
All crane motions are remotely controlled to keep operators out of the process area.
Each of the cranes have interchangeable section magnets to lift the steel.
The Leeds site is ASD’s hub for processing and distribution of structural and general steels to its 26 regional centres. Demag says that its cranes have increased duty by 25%, speeding up the process cycle and improving lead times. Demag helped develop the process line.
“This is an awesome system,” said David Cox, ASD Metal Services group operations manager.