A CRANE, A LIFTING FRAME FOR A CRANE, AND A METHOD OF LIFTING A COMPONENT

摘要

A lifting frame (18) for a crane (10) comprises a wheeled gantry (20) which is arranged to move in a first direction on tracks (32) on the lifting frame (18) and a wheeled carriage (22) which is arranged to move in a direction perpendicular to the first direction on tracks (38) on the gantry (20). The lifting frame (18) is attached to a component (16) by attachment means (26) and a lifting point (23) on the carriage (22) is attached to a crane hook (14) by a shackle (24). A force transducer (52) measures the tension in the shackle (24), and accelerometers (58, 60) detect tilting of the lifting frame (18). A processor (56) calculates the position of the centre of gravity of the combined lifting frame (18) and component (16) from measured values of tension and automatically positions the lifting point (23) of the carriage (22) above the centre of gravity of the combined lifting frame (18) and component (16) to maintain the component (16) horizontal when it is lifted from the ground. The lifting frame (18) may be used with gantry cranes or goliath cranes.