Overhead cranes increase productivity in £20m robotics factory

The new £19m facility has brought the company’s robotics, machine tools and factory automation activities under one roof. It includes design, manufacturing and training facilities together with offices and a large showroom area.

Building contractor Bowmer & Kirkland appointed Street to design the overhead cranes prior to construction starting. To maximise the available envelope within the roof space and facilitate installation, a two-stage process was agreed, which saw Street install the cranes before the roof was fitted, including full weather protection. The cranes were then fully commissioned during the second visit and handed over once the facility had been finished.

Three double-girder cranes have been supplied as part of the facility’s 48,000ft² workshop, which retrofits, assembles and tests industrial robots, CNC machines, and turnkey automation systems. Radio-remote controlled, the cranes have a lifting capacity of 20 tonnes and are used for the loading and unloading of vehicles, moving machines around the workshop area and assisting with assembling and disassembling of equipment.

Mark Arbon, Engineering Manager for Fanuc UK, said: “We have been very pleased with the overhead cranes installed by Street Crane. They have already proved invaluable in terms of improving the efficiency of our heavy material-handling activities and going forward, will make the use of the workshop space so much more flexible, allowing us to easily move machines and equipment to suit our ever-changing needs.”

Chris Lindley-Smith, sales director at Street Crane commented: “As we were involved during the early stages of this project, we provided all the up-front consultation work to the building and steelwork contractors, including budgets, crane design dimensions, and structural loading information. This detail was then factored into the facility’s construction programme and resulted in the cranes being installed more quickly, efficiently and cost effectively.

“Now fully commissioned, the cranes offer Fanuc safe and efficient lifting as well as very durable equipment which will meet the company’s changing needs. This durability is a result of Street’s ZX wire rope hoists which have been designed to significantly enhance safety, reliability and maintainability.”