{"id":6793,"date":"2019-12-03T11:37:00","date_gmt":"2019-12-03T11:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.condra.co.za\/?p=6793"},"modified":"2019-12-03T11:40:56","modified_gmt":"2019-12-03T11:40:56","slug":"horses-for-courses-are-bigger-warehouses-worth-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/condra.co.za\/en\/horses-for-courses-are-bigger-warehouses-worth-it\/","title":{"rendered":"HORSES FOR COURSES \u2013 ARE BIGGER WAREHOUSES WORTH IT?"},"content":{"rendered":"Factories and warehouses are wider than ever, and existing buildings are being extended to make them longer.\u00a0 Both trends beg questions about increases in productivity \u2013 are they in proportion to the higher costs of construction?<br\/><br\/>\r\n\r\nCrane manufacturer Condra claims to provide at least part of the answer, supplying the overhead travelling machines that service these larger buildings.<br\/><br\/>\r\n\r\nThough the company still delivers many cranes with traditional spans of around 17 metres, there are orders for an increasing number of double-girder machines greater than 25 metres in span, and managing director Marc Kleiner says that he has in recent years seen buildings measuring as much as 26 metres by 28 metres served by a single crane.<br\/><br\/>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nHis opinion is that the economy of building factories of such a size is debatable, because as the span of the overhead crane increases to match factory width, so too does the cost of the factory structure needed to support its weight.<br\/><br\/>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n\u201cAnd the crane itself also becomes more expensive,\u201d Kleiner added.<br\/><br\/>\r\n\r\n\u201cFor example, the 3-ton girder needed for a 17-metre span increases in weight to 12 tons when the span becomes 25 metres \u2013 a fourfold weight increase to service a 47 percent increase in factory width \u2013 and additional power is also needed to move the heavier crane.\u201d<br\/><br\/>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<div id=\"attachment_6794\" style=\"width: 960px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6794\" class=\"size-full wp-image-6794\" src=\"https:\/\/condra.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/GIRDERS-Photo-1-Compressed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"950\" height=\"632\" srcset=\"https:\/\/condra.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/GIRDERS-Photo-1-Compressed.jpg 950w, https:\/\/condra.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/GIRDERS-Photo-1-Compressed-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/condra.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/GIRDERS-Photo-1-Compressed-768x511.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 950px) 100vw, 950px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-6794\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Very wide-span crane nearing completion in Condra\u2019s Johannesburg factory<\/p><\/div><br\/><br\/>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nIn the case of factory extensions serviced by a second overhead crane, a similar question hangs over whether the intended increases in productivity are actually achieved, because cranes operating in tandem can lead to production logjams.<br\/><br\/>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nKleiner explained:<br\/><br\/>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n\u201cThe thinking is that you put up the initial building which is, say, a two-bay layout, and incorporate planning to extend it at a later date and install a second crane to service an additional two bays.<br\/>\r\n\r\n\u201cBut what often happens is that goods in Bay One cannot be moved to Bay Three because of the second crane working in Bay Two,\u201d he said.<br\/>\r\n\r\nTurning to factories with more modest widths, Kleiner said that single-girder overhead cranes are often a cost-effective alternative to the double-girder ideal.<br\/>\r\n\r\nIn Bulgaria, Condra\u2019s subsidiary there has recently delivered single-girder cranes to an engineering company (a 5-ton machine), and to a steel trading company (two machines with capacities of 5 tons and 3,2 tons).\u00a0 Spans of these cranes range between 11 and 13,8 metres.\u00a0 More single-girder machines are under manufacture.<br\/><br\/>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nKleiner emphasised the functional design of this type of crane:<br\/><br\/>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n\u201cThe single-girder design is both durable and robust, and is an effective solution in standard factory applications.<br\/>\r\n\r\n\u201cOf course, the double-girder design provides the advantages of greater stability, lift precision and lifetime durability, but these benefits come at a higher initial price that is later justified many times over by a much extended useful life.<br\/><br\/>\r\n\r\n\u201cA tight budget may therefore dictate consideration of the single\u2011girder design, which in many cases will be adequate.\u201d<br\/><br\/>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nKleiner said that single-girder designs were usually fitted with Titan short-headroom (SH) series hoists, underslung to maximise vertical lift by absorbing the dimensions of motor and cable drum into the space of the girder depth.<br\/><br\/>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nSH-Series hoist profiles are some 20 percent less than that of other underslung hoist models.<br\/><br\/>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nTitan hoists lift a maximum load of 16 tons, and incorporate refinements such as automatic rope tensioning, smooth travel, built-in load limiter, standardised direct drive and universal carriage.<br\/><br\/>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nDesign of all Condra cranes, both single-girder and double-girder, takes place at Condra\u2019s Gosforth Park factory outside Johnnesburg, where design teams examine the application and compare the suitability of the two alternatives.<br\/><br\/>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nManufacture to specification is carried out using selected components from some 250 sub\u2011assemblies, the main ones being hoists, drives, end-carriages, brakes, gearboxes and motors.<br\/>\r\n\r\nHoists are assembled from standard Condra parts, and fitted with either hooks, grabs, magnets, ladles, buckets or spreaders according to requirement.<br\/>\r\n\r\nAll manufacture is carried out in accordance with the quality management standards of ISO 9001:2015.<br\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Factories and warehouses are wider than ever, and existing buildings are being extended to make them longer.\u00a0 Both trends beg questions about increases in productivity \u2013 are they in proportion to the higher costs of construction? Crane manufacturer Condra claims&hellip;","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":6794,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry","has-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/condra.co.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/condra.co.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/condra.co.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/condra.co.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/condra.co.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6793"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/condra.co.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6793\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6800,"href":"https:\/\/condra.co.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6793\/revisions\/6800"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/condra.co.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/condra.co.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/condra.co.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/condra.co.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}