New design for steel crane suspension beams in steel halls

This paper presents a new type of cross-section for overhead crane beams. A comparative analysis of the new cross-section was carried out with the classical cross-sections used to date. Beams whose cross-sectional areas and consequently weights were very similar were tested. Maximum deformations and critical moments of lateral torsional buckling were used as the main criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of the cross-sections. The new cross-section, which is characterised by having 2 boxes separated by a web at the compression flange, proved to be the most resistant to global loss of stability and deformed the least. The paper also includes a comparative analysis of steel halls equipped with light overhead cranes or tracked cranes of the same capacity. The analysis showed that with a large spacing between the transverse systems, the use of an overhead crane is more advantageous. The aim of the article is to convince designers to use the new section type for suspension crane beams