Crane Base Ground Anchors & Cones for Supporting Crane Steelwork.
Occasionally your civil engineer will decide your factory needs to have concrete floor bases or pads fitted prior to our arrival. This is usually because the concrete floor is too shallow to take an overhead crane, likewise it’s imposed loads. Additionally, the overturning moments imposed by the cranes force need to calculated. Crane base ground anchors can solve this in order top give piece of mind. Foundations are more common on larger SWL overhead gantry cranes, similarly when the edge of the steel is near soft ground, fields or even a body water.
For many years we have designed, manufactured and installed free standing gantry steelwork systems. We can offer a full set of base plate loadings and over turning moments imposed by the crane, above all, your structural engineers should be asking for them.
We can provide crane drawings and crane weights and overturning moments for you to pass on to your own civil or structural engineer. If you are having foundation bases dug into your factory floor and we are supplying the steelwork, we can supply anchor cones in template form. Below, you can see a before and after photograph of the anchor cones. The after pictures shows a string line down the centre.
Having the anchor cones speeds up the crane installation as once we arrive on site we are erecting the steel, almost straight away. This avoids us spending the first day drilling multiple bolt holes; with all the noise and dust implications this brings. The only down side is your ground workers need to set out the base centres a straight line, and make sure the base centres are to our drawing and level.
Crane base ground anchors
Crane Floor Anchors.
If we are providing the crane support steelwork we will free issue the anchor cones/ holding down bolts in advance of our arrival in site. This is so your civil engineers can sink them into the ground with the templates when the concrete is poured.
If you would prefer we can issue the Hilti bolts and resin rather than foundation frames. These do not come with a template so the job of line and levelling is more difficult and time consuming. If you would prefer neither of these options we can drill when the steelwork is delivered, however this cost more time/money.
Often clients having floor pads put in for cranes will dig the hole a little deeper, say 150mm. We can then sink the crane column into the hole and after we have finished it can be concreted over. This eliminates a trip hazard on the base. On the down side, its a bit awkward if you decide to move factory 5 years later.
Sunken crane bolts
Please note.
AG Cranes are not civil engineers. We are not qualified to to say your floor is suitable for the crane in question. We can however recommend civil / structural engineers if you think you may need one.
If you receive a crane quotation for anything over 5 tonnes SWL and the supplier of the crane says “your floor will be OK”, be wary. If you need advise on cranes, steelwork, or bases please call us today, on 01527 894825, 9.00am to 5.00pm. We are here to help, in fact one of the most commonly asked questions is “do overhead cranes need foundations?”
Was this page useful? Also see base grouting for crane upright column bases.
Find many more questions and answers about cranes, and free standing steelwork on our beam cranes FAQ’s page.
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