Recently Engineered Lifting Systems was contacted by a customer just over the Mississippi River with a crisis. They were awarded a large contract that necessitated the immediate expansion of their manufacturing capabilities, including the need for additional cranes.

In response to the dilemma ELS got right to work! Over Easter weekend we worked with the customer and developed Gorbel Workstation system arrangements using AutoCAD and the customers building outline. The order for multiple Workstation crane systems was ready for order entry on Monday morning.

Using Gorbel’s excusive “Crane Brain™” as a basis for design and order entry, these special systems were entered on Monday morning for a 8-working day shipment, on 40,000 lbs of Gorbel systems!  Everyone at Gorbel understood the nature of the customer’s requirement, and worked without stopping to get these systems to the customer in the schedule required.



Working copy of Gorbel Workstation crane layout.

The systems were shipped on time, on two 48’ flatbed trailers, tarped and ready for immediate installation. Because of the time crunch, ELS engineers went to the jobsite and laid-out all of the column locations and checked for obstructions in advance of the systems delivery at the jobsite.

From AutoCAD to Gorbel’s manufacturing, all the way to the installation of the systems in two weeks!  Can you believe there was not one column, support, or section of track out of place?  ELS designed around clearances of ½” per the customer’s request, and everything fit perfect thanks in no small part to Gorbel’s attention to detail and manufacturing standards.

Installation was a breeze with columns marked and locations already identified.

With mechanical installation almost complete in these photos, you can get an idea of the scope of the project.

Installation was a breeze with columns marked and locations already identified.

With mechanical installation almost complete in
these photos, you can get an idea of the scope of the project.

Even a mechanical vacuum lifter made it to the jobsite in time!

Because of the end approach issues and time constraints, Engineered Lifting Systems engineered (Thanks Mike!) fabricated and installed out-bracketed festoons on two of the systems to provide the maximum hook travel as required.

This style of festoon allows the bridge to pass the runway stack-up and provide the best end approach.

The entire project was designed, manufactured, shipped and installed in under two weeks!  If you have an impossible crane task, and have been told you can’t, call Engineered Lifting Systems…..yes, we can!