Rigging a Mattison Grinder

We just brought in a Mattison grinder for stock. Approximately 50,000 lbs.

Our Spreader bar, 2 15T cranes and some 5/8" chain got the job done.

Along with some good operators and safe working.

looks like an odd way to chain.. but you know more about that machine than I.

Too bad I am not closer and enjoying retirement or I would be knocking for a job.. Looks like a fun place to work.
Buck

What is the purpose of the spreader?

I have the spreader since when I use the 2 cranes for lifting I want to make sure the wire rope hangs straight down from the drum and I don't get a "side pull" effect.

I have one chain going thru a top hole into the column casting.

The other chain we slung below the base since the carriage/table was covering up the eyebolt locations we could not get to them. The chains are hooked hook to hook.

It went super smooth.

I bought the spreader for when I had to lift these 60,000 lb gearboxes. Worked perfect with my 2 15T cranes.

From hook to hook I am 12' when the cranes are bumped together. With the gearbox the OD was around 80", so when I tried to lift without the spreader it was pulling my hooks together and the rope was not liking it on the drum.

Is that a 120? Bed looks too long for an 84.

What HP on the spindle, 225?

Ziggy2 said:

Is that a 120? Bed looks too long for an 84.

What HP on the spindle, 225?

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It is actually a 96" table but on an 84" frame. s/n 85-85. 300 HP gear head.

I really wish the company would let me spec a proper grinding machine.......Some idiot thinks a cincinnati T&C grinder is a surface grinder ...........I've lost count of saying "it's not designed for big parts , just for sharpening tools etc....."

I see you have two cranes on one set of tracks. Was it built that way from the beginning or was it built with one crane and the tracks rated for the two cranes?

Cash,

Next time I am in Wisconsin, I'll have to swing by and say hello. We just received our order of saw blades for our new core cleaner design. Your guys done good, they look great!

I am envious of your crane setup. We are designing our new building now with a 25 ton crane so we can handle picking up PCMC rewinders and embosser sections. Perhaps I should be thinking of a pair of 15's?

We are doing a significant number of grinder retrofits and will be building a custom grinder from scratch for a customer in 2017 . . . I had no idea how heavy some of the equipment we would need to handle could be.

SIP6A said:

I see you have two cranes on one set of tracks. Was it built that way from the beginning or was it built with one crane and the tracks rated for the two cranes?

Click to expand...

I can't speak for Cash but, my long craneway 180' has three 5 ton bridges that can be used together. The bridge trucks are about 10' wide so all three would be in one bay but, straddling the columns. The columns in my shop are 25' C-C.

My cranes are feeling a little inadequate at the monument!

Steve

motion guru said:

Cash,

Next time I am in Wisconsin, I'll have to swing by and say hello. We just received our order of saw blades for our new core cleaner design. Your guys done good, they look great!

I am envious of your crane setup. We are designing our new building now with a 25 ton crane so we can handle picking up PCMC rewinders and embosser sections. Perhaps I should be thinking of a pair of 15's?

We are doing a significant number of grinder retrofits and will be building a custom grinder from scratch for a customer in 2017 . . . I had no idea how heavy some of the equipment we would need to handle could be.

Click to expand...

Motion,

Not to hijack Cash's thread but I really would encourage you to think about multiple cranes per bay.

It does allow you to easily rig big pieces.

You can flip things much easier and safer.

You can gain runway capacity since the load is being distributed over a larger area. A lot of this gets into runway design and runway support column spacing. This also requires certain procedures to be followed by the crane operators when doing a two crane lift.

It gives you two hooks vs having only one. Big labor saver when the shop gets busy and doing picks that require a lot of hook time. You can have two jobs picking simultaneously without having to wait.

It does cost more. You are doubling the crane frame, hoist, and control costs. There is also the added cost of the anti-collision equipment.

When we re-craned our plant, we went through a lot of labor utilization numbers for this. We came up with a general formula that all bays needed at least two cranes and our longest bay got three. Really made life a lot easier since with just a little pretask planning, everyone's needs could usually be met without wasting very much shop time. This might not be what you need, but I would encourage you to study the numbers and determine what is best for you.

Just my opinion, but it's much easier and safer to flip things with one crane that has 2 hoists. On a crane with 2 hoists, you can pull the hooks to the side without coming off the grooves on the drum or scarring the cable on the sheaves.

ewlsey said:

Just my opinion, but it's much easier and safer to flip things with one crane that has 2 hoists. On a crane with 2 hoists, you can pull the hooks to the side without coming off the grooves on the drum or scarring the cable on the sheaves.

Click to expand...

I agree. The only thing is that the aux. hook adds considerably to the crane cost without the full benefit of the flexibility of the second crane.

If we had to do a lot of flips, we would have sprung for the aux. hooks.

motion guru said:

Cash,

Next time I am in Wisconsin, I'll have to swing by and say hello.

Click to expand...

When you do, make sure to let me know and I'll drop over and say hi, too. We'll drag Cash out and grab a bite.

Ziggy2 said:

Motion,

Not to hijack Cash's thread but I really would encourage you to think about multiple cranes per bay.

It does allow you to easily rig big pieces.

You can flip things much easier and safer.

You can gain runway capacity since the load is being distributed over a larger area. A lot of this gets into runway design and runway support column spacing. This also requires certain procedures to be followed by the crane operators when doing a two crane lift.

It gives you two hooks vs having only one. Big labor saver when the shop gets busy and doing picks that require a lot of hook time. You can have two jobs picking simultaneously without having to wait.

It does cost more. You are doubling the crane frame, hoist, and control costs. There is also the added cost of the anti-collision equipment.

When we re-craned our plant, we went through a lot of labor utilization numbers for this. We came up with a general formula that all bays needed at least two cranes and our longest bay got three. Really made life a lot easier since with just a little pretask planning, everyone's needs could usually be met without wasting very much shop time. This might not be what you need, but I would encourage you to study the numbers and determine what is best for you.

Click to expand...

I spent a short while working for a company called " Matterson ". They built over head cranes for some of the biggest and best British engineering companies, when they existed.

In the welding bay where they submerged arc welded the box beams they had three overhead cranes that could all be ganged together electronically so they could turn the huge box beams over for welding on other faces.

It was really interesting to see the beams being welded. They were done on a huge sort of moving gantry machine with several welding heads. The box beams are welded to be curved in profile to react against the pull of gravity and the weight of the load.

" Matterson " even made cranes for the Royal Navy. They were used for removing the engines in frigates and destroyers at sea. The down shop drive was a rack and pinion and the cross shop drive was a leadscrew and nut. Unfortunately you couldn't do much about the ropes swaying.

Regards Tyrone

Motion Guru-I am glad the slitters are working!!

As far as my crane set-up. Yes, when we designed the building it was set up for 2 cranes to run on the track. Or I could have just done 1 30 ton crane. We have 2 large grinders in this bay so it made sense to install 2 cranes. Since then we have added 2 other machines and now the operators wait sometimes.

As some others have mentioned 2 hooks is nice as well. I do have 2 hooks on each trolley. The main 15T hook and then an aux 7.5T hook. I wanted 2 hooks for the reason of flipping parts. We now do repeat work for the powerplant where we are constantly using both hooks to flip the parts. In the picture where I am on the truck with the spindle, if makes laying these down or standing them up very easy.

As far as 2 cranes versus 1-I think if you price it out once you start getting to a larger size your price exponentially goes up. So maybe your 25T would be the same as 2 15T??? But with 2 cranes you as well can be working on 2 projects. with 1 crane if it is tied up your guys are waiting and this sucks.

When you spec the cranes you can then get a spreader beam with a hook in the middle or a more simple spreader like the one I have.

If the cranes are built at the same time then the speeds can all be made identical. This is how ours are set up so when we use them together it is very easy to control the load.

One other thing I would do if you will be working on parts-spec your crane beams to be able to handle boom/jib cranes moounted to them. Say 1 ton. Then you can do smaller assembly work with them and not have to tie up a large crane. I did not spec this in this building but we are now working on a new crane bay addition and we are going to add this spec for the engineers.

Do you pin the cranes together or just let one push against the other?

We just bump them together.

I believe on older cranes cab mounted you would pin together then one operator would control all.

I witnessed a near disaster many years ago during a 90ton lift using a pair of supposedly identical cranes ,the problem came about because the two cranes lowered the load at differing speeds so the quicker crane became overloaded ,some kind of clutch started to let go with a horrendous shriek .Somehow the operator of the other crane dropped his end at fast speed and equilibrium resumed just in time as everyone ran for cover.

Those cranes are still in use but I think they are now liked together on a duel lift so that both cranes are controlled together as one.