What Rotation options are available on a Jib Crane?

The idea of a jib crane is to cover an area by rotating instead of travelling. Most customers prefer to have as much area covered by the rotation of one jib as is possible. However, some customers may prefer to limit the rotation of a jib crane. For a small additional sum, rotation stops can be installed on most floor-mounted jib cranes. For example, the customer in a machine shop with a million dollar computerized machining center next to a jib crane does not want his jib crane to be able to rotate into the neighboring CNC machine. Also, some customers will require different electrification options such as a “top entry collector” or “bottom entry collector” depending on the rotation types. This decision will be made by the crane engineer because each option has a more appropriate application. Collectors of this nature help make jibs more flexible because these collectors allow unlimited rotation in one direction. Simple tag electrification is like a dog’s leash – eventually if the dog walks around a post enough, the leash will become wrapped around the post and the dog will not be able to move any more in that direction. Finally, the boom can be motorized itself. This option is expensive and is usually used in heavy duty or high-capacity applications. Pipe pit-casting applications typically see powered rotation jibs – in fact, the first overhead crane in the world was a motorized pit-cast jib crane in Birmingham, Alabama.