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Energy Chains Instead of Festooning on Waste Cranes

Durable plastic energy chains successfully replace festooning in waste crane

In waste processing, the energy chains are used over a travel distance of 116 m

In a waste disposal company in Belgium, the trailing cables in two overhead cranes have been replaced by our e-chains. The project was associated with several challenges: The cranes have to cover travel distances of 116 meters – their speed is 2.5 meters per second with an acceleration of 0.5 meters per s². Both cranes use the same rail line, so they require two long e-chains that run on top of each other in the same channel. These different stresses could only be inadequately coped with trailing cables. With energy chains, supplied as a completely pre-assembled readychain, the cable length could be reduced on the one hand, and the service life significantly increased on the other.

Profile

What was needed: Plastic energy chains, delivered as a completely pre-assembled readychain system, i.Sense tensile and thrust force monitoring to avoid failures
Requirements: High speeds (2.5 m/s) and fast accelerations (0.5 m/s2) were achieved in the cranes. In addition, a long travel distance of 116 m, a narrow bending radius and the presence of moisture and dust caused additional stress on the energy supply system.
Industry: Cranes
Success for the customer: By installing two e-chains, the necessary cable length and cable clearances were significantly reduced, resulting in large savings. In addition, the service life increased to 7.5 years for the e-chain and to 10 years for the cables.

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Problem

MBS is a waste processing company that operates a plant in Geel where bulky waste is handled by two overhead cranes with scrap grabs. The cranes installed in 2003 were initially equipped with Festoon cable systems for power supply. However, both the Festoon cables and the trolleys suffered from the severe operating conditions, including the high speed (2.5 m/s), rapid acceleration/deceleration (0.5 m/s2) and the presence of moisture and dust. In addition, the cables were vulnerable due to the extended length required to cover the 116-metre travel distance and the tight bending radius of the trolleys. And the abrupt accelerations and decelerations also very often led to the cable cars of the Festoon system colliding at high speed.
All of this meant that the cables and trolleys were frequently damaged, resulting in costly unplanned production shutdowns. Although several attempts were made to improve the situation, the problem could not be successfully resolved.

Solution

In 2013, the operator MBS commissioned TCS with the preventive maintenance of the cranes. It was found that the installed Festoon cable system was not suitable for this application. After TCS proposed our e-chains, the operator decided to install two of our 60-metre-long energy supply systems with floating carriers. It made it possible to achieve a significant reduction in the length of the cable (half the length of the track instead of 1.2 times the length of the track) and a reduction in the cable cross-section, which led to large savings. In addition, the service life increased to 7.5 years for the e-chain and to 10 years for the cables.
By supplying the e-chains as a readychain system, i.e. as a pre-assembled cable routing including cables, the chain could be installed quickly and without a long downtime of the system.
Additional safety is also provided by an i.Sense pull/thrust force measurement, which monitors the entire system and switches off the crane in the event of overload. This prevents damage to the chain and cables and thus costly failures before they can occur.