Sheet metal fab business in Raleigh, NC... 'I' beam projecting out the top of door opening to the outside, so you can unload equipment on open trucks via electric hoist. Beam projecting out about 40 feet and supported by gantry like arrangment at the end. The interesting bit is how they got around the door issue, since rollup wouldn't work. Instead they had huge sliding doors that came together in the middle and a cutout for the I beam, complete with flexable rubber seals to completely surround the beam. Naturally I didn't have my camera with me :mad:

There's had bussbar for electric travel on the hoist and 5 ton capacity. If I do one I'd go for 10 ton at least.

Something I've thought about doing for years but couldn't figure out what to do about the doors.

I've seen that before in various industrial settings. I've seen overhead electric hoists that go out of split doors a LOT! The machine shop in the basement of a local establishment (they do LOTS of things) has such a thing. Allthough it's kinda different, and instead of sliding doors, it has hinged doors. They use it to pick up equipment from the parking lot, and lower it to the basement. I've seen them lower a Bridgeport that way! The hoist is rated for 5000 lbs, with a big diameter mast anchored to the building, where the electric chain fall (powered by a flexible cable, not a bus bar) rolls on the swinging I-beam using an electric trolley. It's a NIFTY contraption, the doors have foam seals that seal around the I-beam. They work on all kinds of industrial machinery there, and it all gets lowered to the basement down through there. I've always admired the simple genius of that contraption! I figured that would have been something you would have know about!

Damn....

Sounds very interesting....was thinking about such a setup
for awhile now.

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Naturally I didn't have my camera with me :mad:
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am now a firm believer in camera phones

the average resolution is perfect for computer veiwing

not great

but effective on many occasions

Regarding the camera issue -- I found a small one (approx. 1.5x3.5x0.5) at Walmart for $20 complete with USB cable and CD photo editing software. On high resolution, low compression you get 26 pictures. Lousy instruction manual, but playing around, I finally got it to work. Pictures are functional as long as you don't blow them up above 4x6.

I agree that this is not a new concept.

It is also possible to slide the doors under the beam with the lower flange level with, or nearly so to the bottom edge of the side cladding above the door.

Just a small amount of clearance for the underslung girder trolley frame to clear the cladding with provision for weatherproof flaps like neoprene material.

This is the next best thing to a gantry offering two axes of movement. The beam is not going to be directly over the centre of the load in all circumstances. A little bit of skull dragging will probably be tolerated in most situations.

Never said it was...just the first time I'd seen it done that way. Simple enough idea that I suspect it was done quite often before forklifts and rollup doors were so common.

Take a look at airport hangers. They often have a extra narrow door above the main one to allow the tail fin to get through the door. Of course these are just regular doors since the seal with no I beam in the way.
Bill D.

I agree that a monorail and chain block or something more sophisticated was a fairly common materials handling solution.

On the interactivity of forklifts and roll up doors isn't it curious how the roller doors can develop peculiar bulges and deformities.

If I might indulge in acronism abuse BTDT. Looking at load intently and not noticing obstruction to fork mast at top of doorway.

A 10 ton capacity setup like this sure would have some beefy I-beams, and supports.

Not to mention an electric 10 ton hoist would cost a small fortune.

On a side note, I just completed a 3 month run of machining gear blanks for my previous employer, CM Hoist. They are selling more hoists than they can build! The largest hoist they build in Damascus, VA ("friendliest town on the Appalachian Trail") is the 5 ton Lodestar XL.

The CM Lodestar is the standard electric hoist in industry.

They also have the market on "chain motors", or inverted hoists, which are simply hoists used upside down by the entertainment industry. Instead of having to lift the hoist itself to the rafters of the facility, they lift the chain. Then then hoist rides against the item being lifted. At a ZZ Top concert years ago, they must have had 50 of the CM inverted hoists holding up all their stage and light rigging.

I recall seeing trolley somewhere that went through a roll-up door. The I-beam was just below the roll, and it had a short section that would swing horizontally out of the way of the door. The swing-out hung from a plate that spanned the gap.

It was a manual arrangement with two pull ropes. A shield on one rope came down in front of the door control to prevent closing the door on the track section.

Roger

I would project mine out only 25 feet instead of 40 feet and used 10 ton electric hoists go pretty cheap at auctions.

I think it would be ideal if you could have the building's structure designed ahead of time to support the loads in question.

Its not that the capability couldn't be added later, just that adding all the support structure would be costly at the steelyard.

Go to Amsterdam..... Many "houses" there that are hundreds of years old have a beam sticking out up top for lifting stuff... Apparently lots of merchants there used them as the houses are narrow and the elevator was not invented yet. Houses there may go back to the 1500's. Most have no "beam runner" although I think I have even seen that.

Also true of the "ancient" commercial districts of many old towns, even in the US, although most of ours are gone.

I see the I-beam deal a lot around here.

Guy I bought a shaper from had it. Garage entrance to basement, down stairs. He had a lift over it, with a chain fall and runner so that he could lift stuff out of a truck, scoot it over, and drop it down to the shop, or vice-versa. I want one. Harder here, as I have no overhead clearance on the stairs, and no outside door.

Doors arn't limited to sliding.
Two twin hinged doors close against the beam at a dock here in town.

I've seen them on farms where a stuffed-leather, lips
arangement did the job of keeping the weather out
instead of rubber.

I also have seen one where head-room was a limitation....
and they had an Idler-trolly next to a 5ton lowboy ? ? hoist.

For heavy work the fall was passed thru a "doubler pully"
and back up to the idler-trolly.

Bingo

About 20 miles from here theres a shop that rebuilds the sheaves used in strip mining shovels and skip hoists. These sheaves are cast iron, anywhere from 3 feet to 20 feet in diameter, and run wire rope up to about 8 inches in diameter. Until recently, they had an absolutely massive niles engine lathe stashed inside a steel building, 60 feet or more of the bed projecting out the far wall and covered in tarps. The building had a slot in the roof about 10 feet by 22 feet directly over the headstock. They would load the sheaves by untarping the hole and using a truck crane to put the sheave though the roof.

Recently they built a large steel building next to the tin shack they were working in. The ceiling height is somewhere around 40 feet with an installed 40 or 50 ton bridge crane. They have sliding doors on both ends about 20 feet tall. The last 20 feet of the south wall has a second set of sliding doors (presumably electrically operated). When the top doors open it exposes clear slatted vinyl warehouse door that the bridge crane can drive though to the outside.

The crane rail is supported at the building wall and at the end of the 50 foot exterior run. This allows three semis to park under the crane and receive service at the same time, without opening up the main doors and losing heat. The top doors stay open all the time, unless the wind is blowing or there's a thunderstorm.

Sounds like a hayloft in a barn........


bb

CM Loadstar is DEFINATELY the chainmotor of choice in stage/ theatre work...... (and anymore, 50 motors is a small show ).....I disremember which show it was offhand (they all blend together after a while) we hung IIRC somewhere in the neighborhood of 120 or 130 motors at the Verizon center....and some of those were 2-ton units....

"Poundage" isn't that when water gathers in a depression in the ground after a shower?

I have seen a large hoist setup that had the main beam mounted on trolleys so that the doors didn't nee to close around the beam. When the doors are opened the main beam is power extended although it did not move anywhere near 40 feet.