WHAT IS YOUR CRANE’S LIFE EXPECTANCY?

1 crane life expectation has become a hot topic asportal cranes built in the late 1970 s reach 30 yearsold, and many more far exceed 20 years of Heede (later P&H) developed the first portalcranes, the life expectancy was generally defined as 20years for most of the cranes. Some customers asked for25 year life cranes and we built them with a little moresteel and lower stress ranges on the joints. Some cus-tomers specified thenumber of cycles theywanted the cranedesigned speaking,the P&H portal craneis what we call a heavyweight designthat has proven itsability to run at highduty cycles for over30 years, as in thecase of the first portalcranes installed inNorth America, atWeyerhaeuser,Philadelphia, MS and Plymouth, NC in 1977.

2 Thesecranes, and many like them, have been modernized withnew machinery, new ergonomic cabs, and state-of-the-artvariable frequency controls; all attached to the original30+ year old conservatively designed cranes like the P&H PortalCrane, there appears to be no real defined limit to thelife. If the machinery and electrics are modernized, struc-tural pin wear maintained in an acceptable range, andregular structural and mechanical inspections completedto watch for indications of problems creeping in, thenwe generally recommend to keep running the when a structural issue arises, it is usually in a highstressed area of the crane , in a predictable location, andcan be repaired with a proper weld repair procedurethat will restore new life to the particular joint.

3 All toooften, the cranes are subjected to collision impacts andshock loadings that can also damage the structure,requiring repairs and/or component replacement, butusually not total crane we have yet to see this in any P&H cranes, we areseeing what might be described as life limits in so called lightweight cranes that were offered by competitorsstarting in the late 1980 s. These cranes were offered tousers at a considerably lower cost than a P&H cranethat was labeled as being too heavy , and many buyersjumped at the opportunity to save on the initial projectcost, but there are now 8, 10 and 12 year old cranesthat are suffering from extensive structural crackingthroughout the girder structure, indicating that thelighter designed structure is reaching its cycle life limit,resulting in fatigue cracks and failures.

4 One such non-P&H crane owner has had to replacethe complete girder structure afterhundreds of fatigue cracks surfacedafter only 12 years of service. Anotherhad a cantilever failure resulting in afatality. Several others have had toreplace complete cantilever girder sec-tions.. continued on page 2 FALL 2009 PORTAL CRANESUPPORT TEAM24 HOUR LINE: 880000--663333--11113366P. (205) 951-6777 F. (205) 956-02011894 Woodlands Industrial DriveTrussville, AL 35173 Freddie Duncan Gravelle ManagerRepairs, Service or BreakdownsRhonda Shiflett MgrAngela Ford CoordinatorKen AldrichInspection Mgr**Please have the serial num-ber/location of crane /part num-ber/contact name, phone, fax andaddress available when you call**R al SoucySales ManagerC: (678) 665-5225P.

5 / F. (770) OttoPortal crane Mods (262) 821-4020C. (414) 573-8062F. (262) Special Projects, New Equipment. PAGE 1 PORTAL crane UPDATE FALL 2009 MORE PORTALINFORMATION IS your crane S life EXPECTANCY? FROM THE EDITORDear Portal crane Customer:This issue of Portal crane Systems UPDATE represents anotherstep in the P&H commitment to serve our customers. We hope this sharing of knowledge and experience will help youin your efforts to manage your yard , Gary Otto, Product Manager Cell crane Products and Services Electrical Motors (All Sizes) Controllers & Transmitters Electrical Drives Brake Assemblies ( All Sizes ) Brake Shoes ( All Sizes ) Reactor Assemblies Magnetorque Eddy Current Brakes Gearbox Assemblies Hoist Drum Assemblies Trolley Assemblies Bottom Blocks ( All Sizes)

6 Limit Switches Slip Ring Assemblies Equalizer Assemblies Drive & Idler Truck Assemblies Electrical Modules Brake Control BoardsREBUILD SERVICESREBUILD SERVICESWARRANTY OEM SPECS WARRANTY OEM SPECS SAVINGS QUALITY SAVINGS QUALITY QUICK TURN-A-ROUNDQUICK TURN-A-ROUNDP lease update your recordsto reflect the following:Morris Material Handling1894 Woodlands Industrial , AL 35173 Toll free 800-633-1136 Fax 205-956-02011977 Vintage Cranes still working around the clock2009 is over half way behind us nowand our economy has sufferedgreatly.

7 We know many of you haveseen reductions in staffing,decreased production hours andeven closures. Morris MaterialHandling has taken many steps todiscount services and hold pricing inan effort to assist in this difficulteconomy and we will continue todo all we can to help you maintainyour budget. The Portal ServiceGroup has committed our businessto serving your needs and maintain-ing the best quality in the that end, we will continue to: Review all sub contractor costsand quality Make every effort to work withinyour budget and time table foreach project Expand our technical expertisewith training to become moreefficient Grow our technical base toreduce travel expenses Add more efficient tooling toreduce days on site Involve our Portal Engineeringsupport to better evaluate yourproblems and quickly identifysolutions Expand our rebuild center toreduce middle-man costs Expand the cost savings of ourrebuild incentive program Offer a volume discount pro-gram for individual

8 Mills as well asa larger company plan Continue with our current hourlyrate structure through 2009 andbeyond, if needed Expand our Motor ExchangeProgram to include brakes toreduce your inventory and criticaldown time. These commitments were writtenwith one purpose: Help you ourvaluable contact us, in Birmingham, toask about specific details of theseefforts and to offer any suggestionsyou have for us to be betterproviders. The Birmingham PortalService Group is dedicated to pro-viding each of you with the mostcomprehensive total crane serviceon the market today.

9 We will con-tinue to evaluate our performanceand ask that you continue to allowus the opportunity to be yourPortal crane One Stop Shopping .Freddie H. DuncanPortal/Port Service Group Manager60510152025303540455055 PORTAL crane UPDATE FALL 2009 PAGE 2If your maintenance tip is featured in the Portal crane Systems UPDATE with a photo, you will receive a portal crane jacket. Ideaswithout photos will earn you a P&H portal T-Shirt. Submit your ideas to Gary Otto and be sure to tell us your jacket/shirt size!Below are some of the commonrepairs that P&H has been involvedwith lately on P&H and Non P&HPortal, Log boom and Rotatorcranes: Hoist drum replacement Gear box rebuild and bull gearreplacement Malmedie drum coupling replace-ment Line bore and replace with newpins and bushings.

10 - Top leg end pin- Vertical/Diagonal link pins- Horizontal links- Truck/equalizer pins- Sill beam pins Wheel alignments Load tests OSHA Quarterly ServiceInspections Annual Structural Inspections Emergency Structural Inspections Lifting beam replacement/rebuild Structural crack repairs Cab repair/replacement Cab window replacements Sill beam replacements Trolley rail repair/replacement Gantry rail repair/replacement Gantry rail foundation tamping Gantry rail foundation groutrepairMuch is no job too small or toobig. Call R al at 678-665-5225 for afree S continued from page 1If you were to look at the requirements for designing a CMAAC lass F high duty cycle crane , you would find that the designshould provide a minimum of 2 million loading cycles.