Biggest Overhead Crane in the World and Kuangshan Crane Signature Projects Across Heavy Industry

In the field of industrial lifting, the ‘biggest overhead crane in the world' not only represents super lifting capacity, but also embodies the highest level of structural design, intelligent control and on-site comprehensive service. The following article firstly introduces the 1300 t overhead crane developed in China, and then analyses six cases of Kuangshan Crane’s overhead cranes under heavy-duty working conditions to help readers fully understand the technical characteristics and application value of the super large-tonnage overhead crane.

The Biggest Overhead Crane in the World: 1300t Single Lift Point Overhead Crane 

Against the backdrop of continuous breakthroughs in global bridge crane technology, China’s engineering and manufacturing have once again set a new record. The 1300-tonne single-hanging-point overhead crane, independently researched and developed by Tai Heavy Group, is not only the world’s largest overhead crane, but also the only one that has achieved this level of single-hook lifting capacity so far. Its successful application marks that China is among the world’s forefront in the field of ultra-large tonnage high-end lifting equipment, and it has become an indispensable ‘national heavy weapon' for clean energy and major engineering projects. The following is an in-depth analysis of this epoch-making crane from the background of the project, product scale to technical highlights.

Project Application 

The 1300t overhead travelling crane independently developed by Tai Heavy Group is the world’s first and only overhead travelling crane with a lifting capacity of 1300t at a single lifting point, which has been successfully applied in two national hydropower projects in China, namely Baihetan and Wudongde. This equipment is mainly responsible for the installation of the core equipment of megawatt hydropower units, solving the problem of large tonnage and high precision lifting. As the backbone of China’s key hydropower projects, it ensures the efficient construction of China’s clean energy corridor, and is a ‘national heavy weapon'.

Product Dimensions 

This bridge crane is a ‘steel giant' with a huge profile:

• Length: 31.3 metres
• Length: 31.3 metres Width: 18 metres Height: 8.9 metres
• Height: 8.9 metres 

Its volume covers an area of more than a standard basketball court and is close to the height of a three-storey building, which makes it worthy of the title of ‘World’s Most Powerful' in terms of both appearance and performance.

Technical Highlights 

The 1300t overhead travelling crane is one of the masterpieces of China’s high-end equipment manufacturing with many original technological breakthroughs, and its core technologies include: 

1.Innovative structural design

• Adopting the bridge structure scheme of ‘three main girders + articulated end girders', which greatly improves the load carrying capacity and structural stability.
• The main and auxiliary trolleys operate independently, which improves the flexibility and efficiency of lifting.

2.World’s first lifting mechanism

• A multi-layer wire rope winding guidance system is developed and a mathematical trajectory model is constructed, which effectively extends the life of the wire rope and reduces the maintenance frequency.
• The eight-point group drive parallel system, combined with the automatic deflection correction operating mechanism, realises the smooth lifting of large components.

3.Intelligent control system

• Equipped with self-developed intelligent control platform, it realises data monitoring, fault warning and remote control in the whole process of lifting, which greatly improves safety and convenience of operation and maintenance.
• It supports the high-precision positioning control of ‘a thousand tonnes without deviation', which meets the millimetre-level precision requirements for the installation of super-large equipment.

4. Lightweight and high reliability at the same time

• Through modern digital design and simulation optimisation, it achieves the comprehensive goals of large load bearing, low deadweight and compact structure, ensuring the long-term stable operation of the equipment under high-intensity working conditions.

5. Seismic resistance of the whole machine and system integration

• The seismic analysis and structural optimisation of the bridge crane with large critical load have been completed, and the integrated design and manufacturing technology innovation of key components such as large beams have been carried out to ensure reliable operation in complex geological areas.

The 1300t bridge crane not only fills the gap of the world’s super-large tonnage single crane technology, but also helps China’s clean energy projects to step into the world’s leading level with its powerful performance, and becomes a milestone in the development history of bridge cranes. The success of its research and development signifies that China has ranked among the first echelon in the world in the field of manufacturing super large tonnage bridge cranes, which provides strong equipment support for future nuclear power, hydropower, aerospace and other high-end industrial projects.

Kuangshan Crane Large Overhead Crane Cases 

Kuangshan Crane has also made breakthroughs in a number of super large tonnage bridge crane projects, creating a number of heavy bridge crane products with engineering demonstration significance, which are widely used in nuclear power, wind power, hydropower, aerospace, metallurgy and other key industrial fields.

These projects not only reflect Kuangshan Crane’s technical depth in large tonnage design capability, adaptability to complex working conditions, intelligent control system integration and safety performance guarantee, but also show its extensive participation and delivery capability in China’s national key projects. Below, we will introduce these six representative Kuangshan Crane overhead travelling crane cases one by one, and deeply analyse their application scenarios and technical highlights, to help you fully understand Kuangshan’s engineering strength and industry influence in the field of heavy-duty lifting.

600t Overhead Crane for Pumped Storage Power Station 

Kuangshan Crane participates in the construction of major national engineering projects with high-quality products. The delivery of a large number of lifting equipment, 600t overhead travelling crane as the core equipment, successfully served in the ‘14th Five-Year Plan' under the important energy projects – a pumped storage power station, shoulder the key task of large equipment installation and lifting. As an important infrastructure for peak and frequency adjustment and emergency backup of China’s energy system, pumped storage power station is one of the key support points of the national ‘double carbon' strategy.

Technical Highlights of 600t Overhead Crane

• High-strength steel structure and international brand configuration: The main structure of the crane is made of high-strength alloy steel, which takes into account the load carrying capacity and self-weight control, and ensures that the equipment still has excellent structural stability and fatigue life under heavy load operation. The main transmission and control components are all of international brands, which comprehensively improves the reliability and accuracy of the overall operation of the crane.
• Double-hook high-precision synchronous control system: 600t overhead travelling crane is equipped with double-hook synchronous lifting function, which effectively guarantees the smoothness and safety of oversized lifting.
• Intelligent anti-shaking and digital monitoring: Equipped with self-developed intelligent anti-shaking control system, the crane can effectively inhibit shaking. Combined with the digital monitoring platform, users can realise visual management of remote operation status, which improves maintenance efficiency and safety control capability.
• Green Manufacturing and Full Life Cycle Service: The crane product is based on the concept of green manufacturing, and fully embodies the requirements of energy saving, environmental protection and resource saving during the manufacturing process, etc. Kuangshan Crane provides full life cycle quality service covering design, manufacturing, installation, commissioning and operation and maintenance for the project, ensuring stable and efficient operation of the equipment, and comprehensively contributing to the ‘National Double Carbon' project. Kuangshan Crane will ensure the stable and efficient operation of the equipment, which will fully assist the implementation of the national ‘double carbon' goal.

550t Nuclear Power Specialized Overhead Crane Serving China's Nuclear Projects

Against the backdrop of China’s steady progress in the nuclear power industry, Kuangshan Crane has successfully delivered a 550-tonne bridge crane for nuclear power, providing lifting equipment to support the country’s nuclear power sector development.

Technical Highlights of the 550t Bridge Crane for Nuclear Power Applications

• Double girder and double rail modular architecture: the crane adopts a double girder and double rail towed trolley structural arrangement form, stable performance, the whole vehicle modular equal strength and equal life design, convenient for manufacturing, transport, installation and maintenance.
• Full Frequency Rectifier Feedback System: The whole crane adopts the full frequency rectifier/feedback speed control system, which is energy-saving and environmentally friendly, and operates efficiently.
• Decentralised PLC Intelligent Management: The PLC control system consists of a decentralised structure for control, protection and interlocking, which is suitable for the extremely high requirements for risk control in the nuclear power field.
• CMS Intelligent Management Platform: Configured with CMS crane informatisation system with integrated functions, it is equipped with real-time monitoring of the whole machine status, real-time information collection, system management, video monitoring system, remote client access, etc., which improves the efficiency of the project management and the safety level of the lifting operation.

500t Dual-Trolley Bridge Crane Empowers World-Class Offshore Wind Power Project

At the site of a world-class offshore wind power project, the new 500-tonne double-trolley double-girder overhead travelling crane, independently researched, developed, and manufactured by Kuangshan Crane Company Limited, has completed installation and commissioning and is now in efficient operation. The crane is not only Kuangshan Crane, after 400 tonnes of wind power cranes after another masterpiece, but also marks its service in China’s ‘green energy' strategy of continued breakthroughs.

A total of 43 sets of new lifting equipment were used in the first phase of the project, providing major equipment and technical support for China’s construction of world-class offshore wind power energy clusters.

Technical Highlights of the New 500t Dual-Trolley Bridge Crane

• Energy saving and green operation: the crane lifting mechanism adopts a lightweight design with a more reasonable structure, which improves the energy efficiency ratio. Equipped with high lift and fast and slow speed automatic adjustment function, it realises energy-saving operation under the premise of ensuring the stability of hoisting and significantly reduces the comprehensive energy consumption of heavy workshop.
• High-precision anti-swing, efficiency guarantee: the whole machine is equipped with multi-hook high-precision synchronisation technology, and the whole machine’s electronically-controlled anti-swing function, which realises coordinated movements between multiple lifting points. It effectively reduces the swinging amplitude, ensures smooth and accurate lifting process, and facilitates the efficient handling of heavy workpieces.
• Safety and security system, comprehensive coverage: the project cranes are equipped with advanced digital monitoring and imaging system, supporting real-time operation status monitoring, fault early warning, full life cycle management and other functions, to provide comprehensive security for the operation of the equipment and the work site, to meet the wind power industry’s stringent requirements for equipment safety.

450t Four-Girder Four-Track Casting Bridge Crane Serving the Metallurgical Industry

Kuangshan Crane for an enterprise tailor-made 450t casting crane, is currently the domestic electric furnace steelmaking process of the lifting capacity of the larger, higher level of technology, the span of the larger four girders and four rails casting cranes, has a high degree of reliability, high safety, high configuration of the entire use of the performance of the machine, mainly to undertake the steelmaking plant, the ironworks molten The crane is mainly responsible for lifting and transporting molten metal in steelworks and ironworks, and has won unanimous praise from users in the metallurgical industry.

The crane is mainly used in the metallurgical industry under the high temperature and high intensity operating environment, to undertake molten metal lifting tasks in the smelting of ladle, iron ladle and other key links. It is an indispensable core equipment in the steel production line with the features of high load capacity, stable operation and high level of safety protection. 

Technical Highlights of the 450t Four-Girder Four-Track Casting Bridge Crane

• Four-beam and four-rail structure: adopting four-beam and four-rail + overall large reducer arrangement scheme, with greater load bearing capacity and structural stability, to ensure the safety of heavy ladle lifting process and the stability of the trajectory, safety and stability is stronger.
• Integral annealing processing: the frame structure of the trolley is annealed and precision processed, which improves the structural stability and assembly precision, and makes the whole machine run more smoothly and have a longer service life.
• Finite element modelling and analysis: Finite element modelling and analysis is adopted in the design calculation for stronger strength, equal strength and equal life-time design of parts, better matching of structure and mechanism, and higher cost performance.
• PLC control system: the whole machine control system adopts PLC control, equipped with industrial Ethernet bus architecture, with modularity, openness and strong advantages, and reserved for intelligent upgrading interface, to provide convenience for the subsequent transformation of digital workshop.
• Safety monitoring system: Efficient management is equipped with safety monitoring management system, real-time safety alarm, full-life detection record, improve the safety of use and productivity, realise the visual management of the whole life cycle of the equipment, safeguard the safety of people and equipment, and improve the production efficiency.

160t+160t Explosion-Proof Double Girder Overhead Crane Empowers China's Aerospace Industry

160t+160t explosion-proof double girder overhead travelling crane is tailor-made for the Fourth Research Institute of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) by Kuangshan Crane, which is specially designed for the lifting and loading of large-scale aerospace equipments such as solid rocket motors, and it is the first large-tonnage explosion-proof overhead travelling crane in the aerospace industry of China, which is of milestone significance.

Technical Highlights of the 160t+160t Explosion-Proof Double Girder Overhead Crane

• Aerospace-class safety guarantee: The load test includes no-load, static load, dynamic load and rated load test, and the whole process of safety technology briefing is carried out to ensure the reliability of the test.
• Explosion-proof design breakthrough: This project marks Kuangshan Crane’s ‘zero breakthrough' in the field of large tonnage explosion-proof overhead travelling crane, filling the blank of aerospace application in China.
• Strong co-operation mode: Kuangshan Crane cooperates with China Aerospace Corporation (CASC), combining the product advantages and technical strengths of both parties to jointly promote the upgrading of aerospace manufacturing equipment.

500t New-Generation Overhead Crane Serving Nuclear Power Project

Kuangshan Crane customised a 500t new bridge crane for CNBM, which is mainly used for lifting large components in the nuclear power industry chain. With its high structural strength, intelligent control, smooth operation, full safety protection and other technical advantages, this equipment has become the core equipment for the customer’s key material handling in the nuclear power field. The project authority highly praised its ‘precision quality and excellent performance'.

The service unit, Guobu Heavy Industry, is a Class A supplier of China Yizhong, and has been providing large-scale parts processing services for nuclear power, hydrogenation, energy, wind power and other national key projects for a long time. This co-operation provides powerful lifting equipment support for large parts lifting operation in nuclear power field.

Technical Highlights of the 500t New-Generation Overhead Crane

• High-strength structural design: The bridge crane adopts high-quality and high-strength steel to build the main frame, which has excellent compressive and tensile properties and can cope with the complex load requirements in the lifting of nuclear power equipment.
• Finite element simulation and optimisation: Finite element analysis (FEA) technology is adopted to simulate the structural force and refine the design to ensure uniform force, which greatly enhances the stability and fatigue resistance of the machine.
• Intelligent control system: Introducing inverter + PLC + Internet of Things (IoT) technology with human-machine interaction function, it realises seamless and cooperative operation of the main hook, the secondary hook and the auxiliary hook, and achieves precise and synchronous operation.
• Advanced anti-swing system: Built-in advanced anti-swing algorithm monitors the swinging state of objects in real time and adjusts the running trajectory of the hook, controlling the swinging amplitude within a very small range, effectively guaranteeing the safety of lifting and loading.
• Multiple Safety Protection Mechanisms: The crane is equipped with multiple safety protection devices, which comprehensively improves the safety of operation and ensures the double safety of operators and equipment.

Kuangshan Crane: A Core Force Behind Heavy-Duty Overhead Crane Innovation

During the critical period when the global bridge crane technology is moving towards high-end intelligence, Kuangshan Crane continues to achieve technological breakthroughs and lead the industry in the field of super large tonnage bridge cranes by virtue of its strong R&D strength and profound engineering deposits. From 550t nuclear power bridge, to 160t+160t aerospace explosion-proof bridge, 500t wind power maintenance bridge, 600t hydropower special bridge and other national key projects successfully delivered, Kuangshan not only completed a challenge, but also set up the image of China’s manufacturing in the field of high-end lifting equipment benchmark.

Its core advantages are reflected in:

• Comprehensive and systematic design and manufacturing capability: Kuangshan has a complete bridge crane development platform, from structural finite element analysis to intelligent control algorithms, from the application of new materials to the whole process of quality traceability, all of which have reached the industry leading level.
• Strong project delivery capability: Kuangshan can complete large-scale lifting tasks under extreme working conditions in wind power, nuclear power, aerospace, hydropower, metallurgy and other fields, reflecting its excellent project implementation capability and highly reliable product quality.
• Technological innovation drives development: it keeps deepening the application of PLC+IoT fusion technology, anti-swing control algorithm, three main girder design, multi-hook collaborative lifting, etc., which promotes the bridge machine to move forward to intelligence and digitalisation.
• Model enterprise serving national major projects: as a long-term partner of CNNC, AVIC, China Three Gorges, etc., Kuangshan participates in and supports the construction of major projects in China with practical actions, and has won the high trust of the industry and customers.

In the future, Kuangshan Crane will continue to uphold the concept of ‘making fine products and serving the world', and with stronger technical strength, higher delivery standards and more reliable product quality, Kuangshan Crane will provide global customers with intelligent, safe and efficient heavy lifting solutions, and help the world’s industrial infrastructure continue to leap upwards.

krystal

Crane OEM expert

With 8 years of experience in customizing lifting equipment, helped 10,000+ customers with their pre-sales questions and concerns, if you have any related needs, please feel free to contact me!

WhatsApp: +86 199 1373 9708

Email: krystalli@kscranegroup.com