The Advantages Of Scrap Handling Cranes

As the demand for steel products rises throughout the world, more and more companies are focusing on recycling scrap metal. A large percentage of the steel products that are available for purchase today were created using recycled scrap metal.

Scrap yards use a variety of pieces of equipment to transform scrap metal into usable products. Out of all of these pieces of equipment, scrap handling cranes are some of the most important. As you might guess, these cranes are used for moving scrap metal around from one area to another.

Compared to other methods of transporting scrap, they are extremely efficient and provide a number of advantages. In fact, it is precisely because of these advantages that they are so commonly used at modern scrap processing facilities.

Scrap Handling Crane
Scrap Handling Crane

To understand why these cranes are so beneficial, you just need to look at the other material handling options that are available. Most other options require workers to move the materials around at floor level. For instance, front-end loaders are commonly used to move scrap metal around the yard. When compared to cranes, these pieces of equipment have some distinct disadvantages.

For one thing, they require a lot of room to operate. These vehicles need to be able to move forward, back up, and turn around. All of these maneuvers require a great deal of space. That means that a large portion of the scrap yard needs to be left empty in order to provide room for these vehicles to maneuver.

By using a crane to move the materials, this problem is essentially eliminated. Cranes move materials overhead. This doesn’t require any additional ground space, meaning that less space is wasted in the scrap yard. Cranes have a much smaller footprint than other types of equipment. In some cases, they even have no footprint at all. For instance, bridge cranes are attached to the walls of the building, requiring absolutely no floor space.

Grab Bucket Crane
Grab Bucket Crane

In most cases, cranes also have a higher lifting capacity than other types of scrap handling equipment. That means that they can carry larger, heavier loads, helping to improve efficiency. Being able to move more scrap metal at a time can reduce the number of loads required to move a specific volume of scrap metal from one area to another.

Scrap handling cranes are also usually a safer option than other types of moving equipment. The use of cranes eliminates the need for workers to be right in the area where the scrap metal is being moved. This reduces the chances of accidents or injuries. It also minimizes the amount of heavy lifting workers are required to perform. Again, this helps cut the likelihood of on-the-job injuries.

Scrap handling cranes provide many different advantages for businesses. It is precisely because of these advantages that so many modern scrap yards have begun using cranes as their primary solution for handling materials.

Not only do cranes require less space than other types of moving equipment but they also are safer to operate and are more efficient, making them an obvious choice for businesses that handle scrap metal.