At the beginning, I will pull my topics from points of confusion that I have seen over the past 30 years in the Overhead Bridge Crane business. Ours is a family company that was started by my father and uncles in 1947 and I have been involved in overhead bridge cranes all of my life. I’ve seen just about every crane problem you can imagine and look forward to putting together a knowledge base here to help people avoid those all too common as well as not so common mistakes.

I once purchased a book entitled “If Only We Knew What We Know”. In spite of the apparent double talk, the title really struck me. It was my first exposure to “knowledge bases” and the concept really caught my imagination. Nowhere is the concept of a knowledge base more applicable that with overhead bridge cranes. There are hundreds of experienced crane technicians, plant engineers, and maintenance men and crane operators with 10, 20 and 30 plus years experience that have learn the hard way, but there is almost nothing written down to pass on this knowledge. This is the essence of a knowledge base, and this is what I hope to collectively put together here.

Some of the upcoming topics will include:

• The important of Duty Cycle in specifying and purchasing an Overhead Bridge Crane
• OSHA, what is really required?
• Do Mechanical Load Brakes really make a difference?
• Six issues you must confirm before buying an Overhead Bridge Crane

Look forward to hearing from you.

Dr. Frazier Crane
PhD in Craneology (Piled High and Deep)