Leading
Innovation
By Karen Norheim, American Crane &
Equipment Corporation.
Karen Norheim
Karen is Executive Vice President
of American Crane & Equipment
Corporation
(ACECO), a local
and recognized
leader in the design
and manufacturing
of overhead
lifting equipment.
She holds a BS
in Marketing &
International
Business, a BS
in International
Studies, a MS in
Information Science
and an MBA from
Pennsylvania State
University.
Responses to questions by Newal
Agnihotri, Editor of Nuclear Plant
Journal.
1.
How does American Crane help
optimize outage management operation
using their cranes?
American Crane has contracts to
perform preventive maintenance of
critical cranes prior to plant outages and
dry spent fuel loadings to assure that no
unexpected downtime occurs. American
Crane also has contracts at plant to have
one or more service personnel available
during outages and dry spent fuel loadings
to assure any unanticipated crane issues
are quickly resolved.
2.
How does American Crane resolve
the obsolescence problem from its parts
suppliers?
American Crane
uses a few select
suppliers for critical
crane components.
This close relation-
ship with key sup-
pliers has many
benefits. Most of
these suppliers fre-
quently have sales
and/or
engineer-
ing personnel visit
American Crane to
appraise sales and
engineering of prod-
uct changes and po-
tential obsolesce of
components, parts,
and software. Pro-
curement of ACECO
recommended critical spares by the plants
could avoid prolonged crane downtime
due to current obsolescence of compo-
nents, parts, and software.
3.
Does American Crane utilize state-
of-the-art digital equipment to make the
existing cranes in nuclear power plants,
more reliable and long-lasting?
Probably the most significant digital
controls on current cranes are the variable
frequency drives. These drives improve
safety and reliability through variable
speed controls, precision placement of
loads, and fault identification. PLC’s
are utilized for proper positioning and
to assure cranes do not go into restricted
areas.
4.
What innovative refurbishment
products and services are provided by
American Crane to extend the life of
nuclear power plant cranes?
The most innovative product that
ACECO has recently supplied is a
telescoping jib crane installed inside a
PWR containment. The jib crane frees
up the polar crane from having to perform
many nonsafety lifts during an outage.
The jib crane can also reach areas in the
containment that the polar crane cannot.
This combination of benefits can reduce
overall outage time and can result in a
rapid payback for the crane investment.
5.
What specialized accessories are
being provided by American Crane for
nuclear power plant applications?
American Crane has provided a
variety of safety related material handling
accessories including lift beams to ANSI
N14.6, "Radioactive Materials - Special
Lifting Devices for Shipping Containers
Weighing 10 000 Pounds (4500 kg) or
More".
Contact: Beth Lerario, American
Crane & Equipment Corporation, 531
Old Swede Road, Douglassville, PA
19518; telephone: (610) 385-2871,
email:
Telescoping Jib.
36
NuclearPlantJournal.com Nuclear Plant Journal, March-April 2016
