Difference between a jib crane and an overhead crane

Manual overhead crane or electrical installation ?

Must choose a manual overhead crane or an electrical equipment ? It depends on your activity, your productivity level or the dimension of your warehouses. As with an overhead crane, the jib crane has a lifting motion i.e. ascent and descent. This movement is mainly electrically powered, although there are still some installations with manual lifting. This up/down movement is done with an electric chain or wire rope hoist.

An identical second movement

This is the steering movement which consists of moving the lifting hoist trolley on the girder on which it is suspended for the lifting jib crane and the single-girder overhead crane, but which can be fixed on others, such as double-girder overhead cranes. The steering movement of the hoist trolley placed on a bracket is either electric or manual for lifting jib crane and overhead cranes used for light handling. The choice depends on the lifting height and the weight of the load to be moved, but beyond three meters of lifting it is strongly advised to use electric chain hoist motorised steering trolleys. Wire rope hoist trolleys are always motorised.

The difference between the two machines

This is in the third movement which is called travelling for the overhead crane and rotation or turning for the jib crane. The latter rotates around an axis making a 180, 270 or 360° arc depending on the model. However the overhead crane will move along the entire length of its track. It will cover a larger surface in the shape of a parallelogram or quadrilateral and not an arc.

How to choose between a jib crane and an overhead crane

AMIO Levage catalogue is very complete with jib cranes up to 10 tons. However the length of the jib crane's arm, which is called the range, will always be lower than the range of an overhead crane with the same load capacity. In conclusion the jib crane will be positioned on a specific workstation, while the overhead crane is more versatile. The overhead crane can support and serve these workstations but also perform tasks in these same workstations.