Leading crane supplier to the steel, stockholding, fabrication and coating industries, Street Crane Company is celebrating orders from two galvanizers. Wedge Galvanizing have purchased two special 10 tonne double girder cranes for their Worksop plant and Dorman Long Engineering is buying three double girder overhead cranes and two semi-Goliath travelling cranes for their new Nigerian galvanizing operation. Both projects will be delivered before the year end and have a combined value of over £300,000. The orders underpin Street's expertise in the supply of electric overhead travelling cranes (EOTC's) to this key market.

At Worksop, where Wedge operates the longest galvanizing bath in Europe, the company is modernising to increase crane lifting capability and improve material throughput. The new cranes, each double girder with hoists of ten tonnes safe working load, will be used in the pre-treatment bay for sequential de-greasing, rinsing and fluxing of both components and large structures prior to hot-dip galvanizing.

Commenting on the particular technical requirements in galvanizing operations Street Crane's sales manager, Gus Zona, explained, "Overhead cranes are crucial to the galvanizing process. They need to withstand continuous heavy usage in a demanding environment and yet provide flexibility. Hoist mechanisms are therefore rated heavy duty M6/M7."

"During preparation, smaller building components mounted on jigs, or large structural steel elements, supported by a beam, are chemically treated by dipping prior to galvanizing. To achieve the required results, load lowering and raising speeds need to be finely controlled to ensure that the steel is exposed for the correct time and excess chemicals can be drained before moving to the next process. Appropriately rated motors have been installed to meet these differing speed demands."

Street Crane has provided overhead cranes with two-speed operation, using VX series open barrel wire-rope hoists. These hoists contribute to safety and efficiency by providing a truly vertical lift.

Although modern extraction systems have dramatically improved working conditions in galvanizing plants, the cranes have special protection against the corrosive environment. Crane controls are housed in IP55 environmentally sealed enclosures, electrical wiring is in non-PVC sheathed cable and brake seal materials have been selected to withstand the adverse site conditions.

At Worksop pendulum crane control has been selected, but provision is included for the installation of radio control in the future. The two new overhead cranes join two existing Street units in the pre-treatment workshops.

Dorman Long Engineering is the largest fabricator of process equipment, pressure vessels and steelwork in Nigeria and principal supplier to the oil and gas sector and construction industry. Their order is for three overhead gantry cranes, each of five tonnes safe working load and two semi-goliath cranes, each with twin hoists of five tonnes safe working load. These are also engineered for demanding and continuous use in a hot and dusty environment. They are destined for new galvanizing plant with an annual capacity of 50,000 tonnes.

This is the first major hot-dip galvanizing plant in Nigeria. It is being built to support an initiative by the Nigerian government to develop local engineering capacity for the energy and construction industries. The galvanizing plant is just one part of a major expansion of Dorman Long's Nigerian operations.

"Street was one of three companies tendering for the business. We were impressed

that they offered cranes specially engineered to meet our needs and appropriate to the process environment, rather than standard cranes that would not have suited our process or operating conditions" explained Michael Hamilton of Dorman Long Engineering. For production flexibility, they are designed to operate both in pairs or used singly for lighter loads.

Street Crane will supply the designs and the electro-mechanical components from

the UK. The heavy structural elements will be fabricated in Nigeria by Dorman Long Engineering to Street's specifications. In addition to making the Street Crane package more competitive, in-country fabrication of the crane steelworbenefits the Nigerian economy by saving foreign currency and creating more skilled work locally.