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Construction Hoists Cases

Scanclimber® by Tractel® hoists are suitable for handling of passengers and materials.

The German contractor, Wiemer & Trachte, was given the contract for the erection of two cooling towers for the German Neurath power plant's new blocks. Therefore they needed a suitable hoist for the transportation of materials and passengers throughout the construction project.

The first cooling tower has a lower diameter of 108 m with an upper diameter of 69 m. The outer surface has a concave profile whose gradient changes dramatically. Since the sliding formwork used to pour concrete changed height continuously, a key requirement was that the hoist would adapt to the constantly changing inclination.

Scanclimber’s office in Limburg eventually solved the issue in co-operation with the client by developing an adaptation of SCANCLIMBER's SC2032F, a hoist with a 2000 kg lifting capacity, a cage length of 3,20 m and a cage width of 1,5 m, to meet the given requirements.

SC2032 cooling tower 03

In order to adjust to the concave profile of the structure, distance sleeves - precision manufactured to match the required shape of the structure - were installed between the 1.5 m long mast sections and the anchor pitch of the hoist was reduced to a distance of only 12 m rather than the normal 21 m due to the inclination. For the upper anchor a shorter pitch was used in order to meet the requirement for a large freestanding mast above the last anchor. This demand of a long free slide way of the formwork without unnecessary disruption of an anchor was achieved with a freestanding mast height of 15 meters, even at a 16° inclination.

Additionally, the power supply cable had to be specially installed. A cable trolley was placed underneath the hoist cage so that the ground station was slightly elevated to accommodate this. Due to the changing inclination throughout the entire lift, cable guide disruptions may have occurred. The cable guides were manufactured with special rollers in order to minimize cable tension to avoid possible complications.

Additional equipment installed on Wiemer & Trachte's SCANCLIMBER SC2032F were a frequency converter which considerably reduced the starting current and thereby provided a soft start and stop for a comfortable ride in the hoist's cage. Furthermore, an automatic grease pump for the rack's lubrication was provided.