Pillar jib crane

A pillar jib crane consists of a pillar anchored to the floor and a jib that slews around it. A trolley with the hoist – chain hoist, wire rope hoist or balancer – runs on the jib. On smaller cranes, slewing and travelling are done by hand as the operator guides the load; larger cranes have electric slewing and travel drives.

The working area is a circle. Every point in it is reached by slewing the jib and moving the trolley.

Two basic forms are common. On the overbraced jib a tie rod carries part of the load from above; the design is light and moves easily but needs height above the jib. The cantilever jib manages without bracing and makes better use of the room height, but is heavier.

Depending on the design, the slewing range extends up to a full circle. Where walls, machines or traffic routes are in the way, it is limited by stops.

At the base of the pillar the tipping moment of load times outreach acts, plus the self-weight of jib and hoist. All of it passes through the base plate into the floor. There are two ways to deal with this: fixing with anchors on the existing floor slab, or a dedicated foundation with cast-in anchors.

Fixing on the existing floor presupposes that thickness, grade and reinforcement of the slab are known and have been verified for the moment. An industrial floor that carries forklift traffic is not thereby suitable for the anchor forces of a jib crane. If the documents are missing, a dedicated foundation remains the safe route.

Five items define the crane.

A pillar jib crane serves one station. If several stations are to be covered as one area, a rail system is usually more economical. If an obstacle stands between pillar and target, a straight jib cannot reach it – an articulating jib is then the right design. And where the floor is to stay clear, a wall-mounted jib crane can be considered.

As a crane it is inspected before first use and periodically thereafter – in Germany under DGUV Vorschrift 52.