Overhead Cranes? *ppfft* easy stuff........
Build a new workshop, install an overhead crane and collect your money. What could be easier you ask yourself?
A long time ago, when I was younger and thinner, (i.e.: last year July) one of my first jobs that I got personally involved with was the installation of a purpose built workshop in Ghana. We trundled on for 3 months building the workshop, realising that ½ the stuff needed to make sure the workshop was an operational workshop was left out – I mean why would you need water in a workshop – and assumptions were made that when put into practice proved woefully inadequate.
But because we are the best there is, we built the best looking workshop in Ghana – and one of the largest, delivered in good working order, on time and with a few additional costs.
With one glaring item missing.
The overhead crane
Said crane was meant to be ordered by ourselves, but clients been keen on keeping costs to a minimum, ordered the crane themselves. Delays in manufacture became further delays in shipping and we were stunned to see the crane arrive in December last year. A full three months after the workshop was completed.
Well, parts of the crane arrived. The rest of the parts were resting happily in a warehouse down south. Eventually after much shouting and moaning - and not of the pleasant type normally associated with…… wait I digress – the remainder of the crane arrived in February.
Once again, plans were made to install the crane, only to find that there was no drawings, no installation instructions – nada. More calls were made to said supplier and eventually a CD was delivered to us. Oh the joys of progress!
There was much muttering about the CD as the lads are not the most computer literate and quite honestly when the CD consists of 23 PDF files with strange names, it becomes a mission to find the installation instructions. Mutterings about the CD not being for the crane that was delivered were discounted when generic instructions on how to install overhead cranes were eventually found.
And so to plan the lift. Use one crane to lift an overhead crane and life goes on. When you then take into account that the design is such that the overhead crane should be installed before you put the roof on, and said roof had been happily providing protection from the elements for over 8 months, life becomes just a smidgen more interesting.
We decided to use the client’s 250t crane – note to the uninitiated: Just because a crane says it is 250t, it does not mean that it lifts 250t. There is funny things called “load tables” which given the length of the boom used, the load distance from centre of crane and other such fun parameters, when we were finished with the study, if the overhead crane weighed more that 25t we would have been stuffed. This is due to the fact, the crane had to stand outside of the building, 10 square meters of roof had to be removed, 3 purlins cut and considering the building is 18m high and 22 meters wide, the load centre was 21 meters from the centre of the crane.
We then pored over the overhead crane drawing and realised quite happily that the weight of the crane was only 7 tons. Easy lift. That was of course until some technical walla – read not me! – questioned the mass of the overhead crane. His contention was a crane that long HAD to weigh more that 7 tons.
Eventually said technical walla noticed that the drawing supplied on the CD was for a smaller crane. Emails were fired off to the supplier, who replied with a snotty email that we should RTFM and they had supplied us the correct CD. Client relations 101. I then decided to send them the copy of the drawing we had on the CD by email and asked them in my most polite language that I use when people do not want to understand the point that I am making, how the 16m crane depicted on the drawing was going to fit in a 22m building.
Eventually said supplier came back most contrite saying that they had indeed supplied us with the wrong CD and attached the correct drawing.
We were back on track.
Client arranged for two qualified installers to come up to Ghana and do the physical installation and sign everything off as required and they arrived on Monday.
Our lads worked long and hard to complete the rails, and install the busbars before the lift planned for Thursday. We also had to removed the required amount of roof (praying that it would not rain) and the client had spent the required eight hours to set up the monster crane.
So comes the day of the lift!
Now I have mentioned Albert before. His flamboyant style, his experience and as I was to learn that day, his amazing comprehension of the English language when applied to the swear word part that make up a small portion of the oxford dictionary. He could have added around another 30 before the lift was completed. No-one died, fell off the beams, got their fingers crushed or any such “please explain” episode.
I was under the impression that a lift is a quiet reserved affair as opposed to the screaming and shouting that went on. But 30 mins after everything started, the lift was complete and said overhead crane was firmly on the rails 12 meters above the ground. Albert smiled, lit up a cigarette and chalked off one more successful lift on his CV.
The one issue that remained was why the control box was 4 meters up in the air. After some more scratching around in the documents, it appeared that someone at the supplier decided that 8.1 meters was the length to make the control cable. It makes everything look rather silly when the crane is 12 meters above the ground.
Methinks the emails to supplier are going to increase a bit over the next two days, and someone is going to get shouted at.
For once – it is not us.
*wipe of brow*
Albert and the two lads from SA went out last night and celebrated. They are all bleeding from the eyes this morning. *chuckle*
A long time ago, when I was younger and thinner, (i.e.: last year July) one of my first jobs that I got personally involved with was the installation of a purpose built workshop in Ghana. We trundled on for 3 months building the workshop, realising that ½ the stuff needed to make sure the workshop was an operational workshop was left out – I mean why would you need water in a workshop – and assumptions were made that when put into practice proved woefully inadequate.
But because we are the best there is, we built the best looking workshop in Ghana – and one of the largest, delivered in good working order, on time and with a few additional costs.
With one glaring item missing.
The overhead crane
Said crane was meant to be ordered by ourselves, but clients been keen on keeping costs to a minimum, ordered the crane themselves. Delays in manufacture became further delays in shipping and we were stunned to see the crane arrive in December last year. A full three months after the workshop was completed.
Well, parts of the crane arrived. The rest of the parts were resting happily in a warehouse down south. Eventually after much shouting and moaning - and not of the pleasant type normally associated with…… wait I digress – the remainder of the crane arrived in February.
Once again, plans were made to install the crane, only to find that there was no drawings, no installation instructions – nada. More calls were made to said supplier and eventually a CD was delivered to us. Oh the joys of progress!
There was much muttering about the CD as the lads are not the most computer literate and quite honestly when the CD consists of 23 PDF files with strange names, it becomes a mission to find the installation instructions. Mutterings about the CD not being for the crane that was delivered were discounted when generic instructions on how to install overhead cranes were eventually found.
And so to plan the lift. Use one crane to lift an overhead crane and life goes on. When you then take into account that the design is such that the overhead crane should be installed before you put the roof on, and said roof had been happily providing protection from the elements for over 8 months, life becomes just a smidgen more interesting.
We decided to use the client’s 250t crane – note to the uninitiated: Just because a crane says it is 250t, it does not mean that it lifts 250t. There is funny things called “load tables” which given the length of the boom used, the load distance from centre of crane and other such fun parameters, when we were finished with the study, if the overhead crane weighed more that 25t we would have been stuffed. This is due to the fact, the crane had to stand outside of the building, 10 square meters of roof had to be removed, 3 purlins cut and considering the building is 18m high and 22 meters wide, the load centre was 21 meters from the centre of the crane.
We then pored over the overhead crane drawing and realised quite happily that the weight of the crane was only 7 tons. Easy lift. That was of course until some technical walla – read not me! – questioned the mass of the overhead crane. His contention was a crane that long HAD to weigh more that 7 tons.
Eventually said technical walla noticed that the drawing supplied on the CD was for a smaller crane. Emails were fired off to the supplier, who replied with a snotty email that we should RTFM and they had supplied us the correct CD. Client relations 101. I then decided to send them the copy of the drawing we had on the CD by email and asked them in my most polite language that I use when people do not want to understand the point that I am making, how the 16m crane depicted on the drawing was going to fit in a 22m building.
Eventually said supplier came back most contrite saying that they had indeed supplied us with the wrong CD and attached the correct drawing.
We were back on track.
Client arranged for two qualified installers to come up to Ghana and do the physical installation and sign everything off as required and they arrived on Monday.
Our lads worked long and hard to complete the rails, and install the busbars before the lift planned for Thursday. We also had to removed the required amount of roof (praying that it would not rain) and the client had spent the required eight hours to set up the monster crane.
So comes the day of the lift!
Now I have mentioned Albert before. His flamboyant style, his experience and as I was to learn that day, his amazing comprehension of the English language when applied to the swear word part that make up a small portion of the oxford dictionary. He could have added around another 30 before the lift was completed. No-one died, fell off the beams, got their fingers crushed or any such “please explain” episode.
I was under the impression that a lift is a quiet reserved affair as opposed to the screaming and shouting that went on. But 30 mins after everything started, the lift was complete and said overhead crane was firmly on the rails 12 meters above the ground. Albert smiled, lit up a cigarette and chalked off one more successful lift on his CV.
The one issue that remained was why the control box was 4 meters up in the air. After some more scratching around in the documents, it appeared that someone at the supplier decided that 8.1 meters was the length to make the control cable. It makes everything look rather silly when the crane is 12 meters above the ground.
Methinks the emails to supplier are going to increase a bit over the next two days, and someone is going to get shouted at.
For once – it is not us.
*wipe of brow*
Albert and the two lads from SA went out last night and celebrated. They are all bleeding from the eyes this morning. *chuckle*
2 Comments:
piece of cake! um, how DO you get to the control box though?
WEll we did offer to build him stairs in wheels, but he was less than impressed. So we put in a longer control cable.
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