Marshalls have a number of existing 20t cranes at their Mildenhall site, which they use for the assembly of their specialist vehicles including transport for the Armed Forces. Whilst the 20t capacity hoists are extremely useful, their size means that they operate particularly slowly, at approximately 2.5m per min, yet much of the daily lifting activities to be undertaken on site are of loads of less than a quarter of the capacity of these hoists.
In order to maximise the potential of Marshall’s cranes, SCX are set to install auxiliary hoist units onto four of the 20t cranes in order to offer increased hoist speeds for lighter loads. These new hoist units will be 5t SWL units and are to be fitted to the existing crab units, which will be modified to accommodate them. This will allow either the 20t or the 5t hoist unit to be utilised as and when required.
The new hoists will run at speeds of up to 5m per min, thus potentially doubling the speed of the existing equipment. This will then increase the speed and efficiency of the cranes, enabling Marshalls to increase production levels.
To facilitate the control of any two hoist units situated on a single crab, SCX are to modify the existing wiring and pendant stations, converting them to radio-control units which will each include a two-position selector switch. This will allow the operator to select either the 20t or 5t hoist unit at the flick of a switch, with the added flexibility and freedom offered by the radio-control.
In addition to this originally agreed work, SCX are also to re-site a 5t crane from the client’s Cambridge site 20 miles away to Mildenhall.
