Converting existing overhead cranes to a fully automatic operation

A large number of cement plants in North America still use overhead cranes to handle one or several of their material storage and reclaim operations. The use of this technology is causing some concerns as environmental laws are becoming more restrictive. New technology that has been developed in Europe over a number of years and that has recently been introduced to the USA, can help lower dust emissions, and have other benefits (lower maintenance costs-lower labor costs-no product cross contamination-improved efficiency and throughput) for a fraction of the cost of replacing the cranes with storage silos. The object of this paper is to describe the completely automatic crane concept, as it was implemented on an existing crane at the Cementi Riva cement plant in Italy.