After securing emergency parts from Germany for a new customer (see Coupling Inserts Found!), Engineered Lifting Systems was selected to put two 25-ton cranes back into active coil handling service for them. Working with the customer and Magnetek Engineering’s Wayne Goodspeed, we developed a plan to provide quality Magnetek Crane controls for all motions by building backplates to fit inside the existing enclosures with pre-wired controls on those backplates for each motion. The old backplates with controls were simply removed, and the new backplates were bolted back in place!

The old controls were a mixture of Filnor Static Stepless Hoist control, and some industrial grade variable frequency drives. The existing hoist motors were of course wound rotor motors, but these can easily be used with a Magnetek Series 3 VG+ drive by tying the ring leads together. The motor performance is not as good as a squirrel cage motor, but more than adequate for coil handling.



Old Filnor Static Control.

-Changed to-



New Magnetek VG+ encoder feedback hoist control, with Dynamic Braking Unit, and load reactors for existing would rotor motors.



Old traverse drive with relays for speed control.

-Changed to-



New G+ Bridge control.

Old Encoder set-up. Note: spliced encoder wire, and misaligned encoder with “hose coupling.”

-Changed to-



New 5/8” Shaft mounted 1024PPR Mill Duty Avtron encoder.



Finished Crane!

A couple of important things to remember for those of you performing a conversion to Flux Vector, or if you are having nuisance trips with your existing system.

The encoder cable between the drive and the encoder should be splice free, run in it’s own conduit separate from Power or control wires, and make sure to use “stand-offs” in the festoon as shown in this modernization picture below. (green arrow)

This will prevent magnetic fields from the other conductors from interfering with the signal from the encoder to the drive, reducing nuisance faults and resets.

I want to thank Joe W. and Mike H. for giving us an opportunity to perform on this project. Prop’s go to Wayne Goodspeed and Mark Henschel from Magnetek for their attention to detail. And of course the project was brought together by our Dane Vance and Tim Dorenkamp who provided a fantastic installation.

If you have questions on Crane Modernizations, make sure and contact the Crane Doctor, Eric Brown. Call us today!  Contact Engineered Lifting today to discuss your installation requirements for your engineered lifting applications!

Download our Benefits of Upgrading Existing Cranes white paper in PDF and learn more about Magnetek’s complete range of systems for improving the performance and reliability of your cranes.