A steel fabrication shop is where crane specifications get made or broken. Loads are long, heavy and awkward; the crane is in the air most of the shift; and the operator has to place a beam within a few millimetres while a welder waits. A general-purpose workshop crane usually fails here — not on capacity, but on duty cycle, control and the way the load behaves.
For most fabrication halls we start with a double girder crane rather than a single girder one, because the loads are heavy, the duty is high and the hook has to come close to the roof of a low bay.
Send a photo of the bay and of a typical heaviest part sitting next to something for scale. It saves three rounds of questions.
| Crane type | Double girder overhead crane (QD series) with open winch trolley |
|---|---|
| Capacity | 10 t, 16 t, 20 t, 32 t, 50 t, 100 t with auxiliary hoist 3–20 t |
| Span | 16 m – 31.5 m, matched to the runway you can build |
| Lifting height | 9 m – 24 m to the main hook |
| Duty classification | A5–A6 (FEM 1Bm–1Am) for two- and three-shift operation |
| Control | Cabin, radio remote, or both; VFD on hoist, trolley and bridge |
| Attachment | Hook, spreader beam, C-hook, lifting magnet with cable reel |
| Protection | IP55 motors and panels, anti-sway, overload limiter, dual hoist brake |
| Finish | Four-coat epoxy system; hot-dip galvanizing for coastal sites |
This is the range we normally supply for this industry. Your offer states the exact capacity, span, lifting height, duty class and voltage for your site — and where a figure here differs from the offer, the offer prevails.
Sometimes, if the loads are under about 20 t, the spans are short and the crane works intermittently — a maintenance or fit-up bay rather than the main production hall. Once you are handling long beams and plates through two shifts, a single girder machine will be working at the edge of its duty class, you cannot have two hooks, and the hook approach in a low bay usually becomes the deciding problem. We will tell you honestly which one your shop needs.
Three things: the plate thickness and whether one plate or a stack must be lifted; whether the magnet will be used on scrap too; and how the magnet is powered and controlled from the crane. Magnet duty also changes the structure and the duty class, so it has to be specified with the crane rather than added later.
Because most lifts in a fabrication shop are small. A 50 t hook moving at 0.5 m per minute is painfully slow for lifting a 2 t component 40 times a shift. The auxiliary hook gives you a fast, precise option for the everyday work while the main hook handles the occasional heavy lift — it is the configuration steel shops use, and it is why they buy double girder cranes.
In this industry, yes, almost always. Stepless speeds remove the swing that makes operators wait for the load to settle, cut the mechanical shock on the gearbox and the building, and make fit-up work possible without a second person guiding the load. If your shop does precise assembly work, VFD pays for itself in output rather than in maintenance savings alone.
Workshops, warehouses, assembly and maintenance bays. Light structure, low wheel load, quick to install.
1–20 t · span to 30 mHeavy duty and long spans: steel fabrication, precast yards, smelters, heavy machining shops.
5–100 t · custom spanOutdoor stockyards, precast beds, container and aggregate handling. Hook, grab or C-hook.
3–100 t · rail or tyreTell us the material, the heaviest piece, how many hours a day the crane runs and whether it works indoors or out — we reply within 24 hours.
Crane type, capacity (t), span (m) and lifting height (m) is usually enough for us to quote. Send a photo of your workshop if you are not sure.
