Date: 10/26/2020
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Purpose-Built Vs. Commercially Available Components – Which Should You Choose For Your Crane and Hoist
Evaluating and optimizing your hoist can make all the difference in a project: the overall costs, the upkeep and even the lifetime of the crane. Making the critical decision between purpose-built hoist components and commercially available options can save more than just time and money. The right choice for your application is weighed by a few different factors; today, we cover the considerations you should review when selecting between commercially built components or intentional, hoist-specific components with a range of options.
Commercially Available Hoists – The Case for Oversizing
Commercially available components for lifting are created at various average sizes that allow them to fit more applications across the board. Commercially available components could be right for your application if speed of purchase is a factor – it’s more likely that these parts will be in stock because of the ability to utilize the same component across multiple types of products. Generally, you may be able to find a vendor of commercially available components more easily, and they’re likely to carry standard sizes because there are not any custom stipulations. Also because of this, you can compare the costs of products directly to have a clear understanding of the cost of the component up front.
One limitation of commercially available components is that if they are not specifically designed for lifting applications, you may be limited by the capabilities of these generically made components.
Commercially available components are also made to fit a variety of applications, which can lead to oversizing at the expense of cost efficiency and performance. For example, you can purchase a motor for your hoist from a vendor who uses the same motor for many different applications, and because it’s not a purpose-built motor for hoisting, the motor may not be optimized for a lifting application.
For example, you may need a 1.8 hp motor within your application, but the motor manufacturer only makes 1.5 hp and a 2.5 hp motor. The 1.5 hp won’t be sufficient for your equipment, so you go with the 2.5 hp. However, that impacts the size of the components around the motor – in this case, you’d also need a bigger gearbox to fit it, and the cost of replacement motors and motor parts will be higher as well. This snowballing effect of cost inefficiency impacts both the upfront cost and the ongoing, lifetime costs of hoist maintenance.
Oversizing in this way means that you have more power than you need, leading to other potential cost implications, such as increased wear on other drive train components and general inefficiencies where energy costs are concerned.
Purpose-Built Hoist Components -– The Case for Right-Sizing
Right-sizing and buying purpose-built components can offer optimized performance compared to their commercially available counterparts. Using specially designed components can create a better working experience for operators, ensure the best possible efficiency for your hoist and maximize the lifetime of your hoist.
Purpose-built components create a perfect joining of all drive train parts by offering a complete, engineered system. This maximizes the overall life of the hoist and helps you lower costs in your facility. Ultimately, purpose-built components save costs by ensuring your components don’t have to work harder than they need to when performing daily operations, and the components work in tandem to more effectively and smoothly lift loads.
Oversizing Equipment Vs. Right-Sizing Comparison Chart
The Buying Process- Commercially Available vs. Purpose-Built Components
Commercially available parts can be sourced by a distributor or directly purchased by a facility manager. When in doubt, purchases that don’t fit your exact specifications will be sized up to ensure functionality with your equipment overall. However, this could result in excess energy consumption.
Purpose-built, crane-specific components are designed and manufactured to your specifications and excel at lifting motion. They also allow for customization with the vendor themselves – the hands-on experience can be handled by software that makes the design efficient and easy.
For example, R&M distributors use our proprietary and industry-leading QuoteMaster software for their custom builds. This world class software allows the distributor you work with to really dial down the design of the structures and the internal components you need for your project. For example, QuoteMaster configures how to select which motor and gearbox, inverter and end truck work best for your application. This is configured and is then calculated along with the size of the girder and the design of the connection.
The software’s ability to find the right way to layer all these requirements quickly and efficiently means that there is no professional engineer needed, driving down your overall costs. Utilizing this software also means that crane builders can complete the custom planning within a matter of minutes and have the assurance of both accuracy and safety in their final product.
Working with the distributor creates a more efficient experience for you – there is one point of contact, the other elements of the build are tracked from one location (e.g. the shipping location of specific components), and when the pieces all come together, assembly is simplified because the software has done the work of checking each individual component. This way, all key components are tested together and designed together to ensure the best possible final product. This drives down labor, planning and engineering costs, because it is done right the first time.
Weighing Immediacy of Need vs. Lifetime Value
When you decide between commercially available and purpose-built components, speed and lifetime value are two key considerations to choose which components are right for your build. If you have immediate need for multiple, standard options that need to be easily replaceable and available from a variety of vendors, consider commercially built components. The important caveat is that these pieces do not offer flexibility beyond their original design and may need to be size adjusted to fit your project (meaning costs go up, both for the initial installation and for future replacement parts).
Purpose-built lifting components can require more front-end planning and design, but their reliability and overall value pays for itself over the lifespan of your equipment. Purpose-built components meet your optimal specifications and fit perfectly in tandem with each other. This ultimately means that there is potential to further maximize the lifespan of your hoist and improve efficiency and overall savings on energy costs. The lifetime value of purpose-built components provides better opportunity for optimization and improves your hoist’s performance.
R&M Materials Handling offers crane packages designed to work as a complete system, so every component, from the hoist selection to the bridge drives and girders, are designed to work together to achieve maximum working span and peak efficiency.
Have an upcoming project? Contact us to speak with an expert or use our Crane Designer tool to see immediate recommendations.