Freestanding Monorail Cranes

  • Capacities: up to 2 tons
  • Span Lengths: unlimited
  • Trussed Tracks: steel, stainless steel, or Alu-Track® enclosed tracks
  • Support Structures: freestanding

Spanco monorails offer great layout flexibility, including curved track, multiple tracks, and switches to multiple spurs.

These economical monorails are an excellent alternative for work areas that cannot be serviced by bridge cranes, hard-to-reach locations, buildings with high ceilings, or outdoor areas without existing overhead structures.

Freestanding Monorail Project

Options & Components

Provide permanently installed monorail systems over long spans where there are no existing structures for mounting. Freestanding monorail configurations include:

  • Cantilevered systems
  • H-frame systems, typically requiring only standard 6-inch reinforced concrete floor
  • T-frame systems, ideal for parallel monorail lines (e.g. send and return)

Additional Information

Spanco Monorail Cranes are ideal for production processes that require lifting and moving products along a fixed path, such as painting processes, moving raw materials to workstations, or warehouse-to-warehouse transfer.

Freestanding monorails are ideal when:

  • The building structure cannot support a crane
  • Ceilings have other obstructions (air ducts, skylights, overhead storage)
  • You need a semi-permanent solution due to rental agreements
  • You want a customized width and length
  • You want to use a floor-mounted monorail in conjunction with a ceiling-mounted system

Spanco, Inc. warrants its products to be free from defects in material and workmanship as follows:

  • Manual Systems & Equipment: Ten Years  
  • Motorized Systems & Equipment: One Year
  • Paint & Finishes for Non-Aluminum Components: Two Years

Ten-Year Warranty Coverage:

  • Defects in equipment material and workmanship of manual systems and equipment
  • Wearable parts (workstation bridge crane end trucks and hoist trolley wheels only)

Spanco, Inc. warrants its manual workstation bridge crane, jib crane, and gantry crane products to be free from defects in material and workmanship for a period of ten (10) years or 20,000 hours, commencing on the date of shipment to the first retail purchaser. This warranty extends to non-wearable parts only, with the exception of the wheels supplied on manually operated workstation end trucks and hoist trolleys.

One-Year Warranty Coverage:

  • Defects in equipment material and workmanship of motorized systems and equipment

Spanco, Inc. warrants motorized equipment to be free from defects in material and workmanship for a period of one (1) year or 2,000 hours, commencing on the date of shipment to the first retail purchaser.

Two-Year Warranty Coverage:

  • Paint coatings and finishes for non-aluminum components

Spanco, Inc. warrants its paint and finishes for a period of two (2) years. Warranty claims related to coatings must be accompanied by documentation of the product’s application and environmental conditions from time of delivery to time of claim.

WARRANTY TERMS & CONDITIONS

All warranty claims must be approved by Spanco before any work is performed. Spanco’s obligation under this warranty is limited to the replacement or repair of Spanco products at the factory or separate location approved by Spanco. Other than the above mentioned warranty, Spanco will not honor any other warranties—whether expressed, implied, or statutory—and disclaims any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. Spanco has the right to reject any warranty claim due to harsh and/or inappropriate environmental conditions.

Spanco Is Not Liable for:

  • Indirect, incidental, or consequential damages including lost profits, operating costs, loss of production, or travel expenses
  • Components or accessories not manufactured by Spanco
  • Defective equipment or system failure caused by misuse, negligence, and improper installation or maintenance
  • Equipment that has been used in excess of its rated capacity or beyond its service factors
  • Equipment that has been altered without Spanco’s written authorization
  • Damage incurred by freight carriers
  • Any loss, injury, or damage to persons or property resulting from failure or defective operation of material or equipment

Reimbursement Disclaimer:

  • Written notice of any claimed system defect must be given to Spanco within ninety (90) days of shipment.
  • All requests for reimbursement must be accompanied by proper documentation.
  • Reimbursement is provided in the form of a credit unless otherwise approved by Spanco management.
  • Reimbursement for labor will be provided at a maximum rate of $75 per hour.
  • All reimbursement is subject to approval by Spanco management.

General Design Standards:

Spanco cranes are designed in conformance with the following applicable standards:

  • Workstation Bridge Cranes: AISC Steel Construction Manual, OSHA 1910.179, ANSI B30.11, AWS D1.1/D1.6, and MMA MH27.2
  • Gantry Cranes: AISC Steel Construction Manual, OSHA 1910.179, ANSI B30.11, AWS D1.1/D1.2/D1.6, and CMAA 74
  • Jib Cranes: AISC Steel Construction Manual, OSHA 1910.179, ANSI B30.11, AWS D1.1/D1.6, and CMAA 74

All Spanco cranes have a design factor of 15% of the allowable capacity for the weight of the hoist and 25% for impact.

Fabrication Standards:

All welding performed during the manufacturing of Spanco cranes meets the following American Welding Society’s (AWS) standards: D1.2 for aluminum and D1.1 for steel.

Spanco is officially certified as an AWS Certified Welding Fabricator (CWF). This certification means that not only are all welders AWS Certified, but all processes and procedures adhere to AWS CWF requirements. Examples of requirements include annual calibration of all welding machines and Level 2 visual inspections on all load-bearing components.

Material Standards:

All aluminum used in the manufacturing of Spanco cranes meet ASTM International specification ASTM B308 for 6061-T6 aluminum.

All steel used in the manufacturing of Spanco cranes meets the following applicable ASTM International specifications:

Structural Steel Shapes: ASTM A-36
Structural Steel Pipes: ASTM A-53 Grade B
Structural Square and Rectangular Steel Tubing: ASTM A-500 Grade B

Steel plate and round bar used in Spanco cranes have minimum yield strengths of 36 KSI

Surface Preparation & Painting Procedures:

Spanco adheres to the standards of the Society for Protective Coatings (SSPC) for all product surface preparation. Prior to painting, all Spanco crane components are deburred and descaled using power tools equipped with sanding discs and wire wheels. Components are then washed utilizing a high-pressure/high-temperature biodegradable degreaser solution. Parts are wiped clean and allowed to dry before the painting process. During painting, all components surfaces are coated with a quick drying, semi-gloss enamel, applied to a minimum dry-film thickness of 2 to 3 mils. A finishing coat is applied with a hot, airless, electrostatic spray paint system. Painted components are cured at air temperature.

Deflection Guidelines:

The following guidelines for deflection and stress are followed by Spanco engineers during the crane design process:

  • Workstation Bridge Cranes: All models are designed to approximately L/450
  • Jib Cranes: Freestanding (100, 101, and 102 Series), Mast Style (200 and 201 Series), Wall-Mounted Cantilever (300 Series), Articulating (400, 401, and 402 Series), and Foundationless models (600 and 605 Series) are designed to approximately L/150; Wall-Mounted Bracket (301 Series) models are designed to approximately L/600 at midspan
  • Workstation Jib Cranes: Wall-Mounted (WC Series) models are designed to approximately L/225; Freestanding (FR Series) models are designed to approximately L/150
  • Gantry Cranes: All steel series models are designed to approximately L/600; Aluminum models are designed to approximately L/450

Quality Standards:

Spanco is an ISO 9001:2015 Registered corporation. This means that Spanco cranes are manufactured to standards ensuring safety, reliability, and the highest quality. Spanco’s ISO designation also allows for continuous improvement based on customer feedback.

  • Inspect entire system annually or more frequently as defined by OSHA 1910.179. Inspection must be performed by a qualified person. Failure to do so may cause serious injury or death.
  • This equipment, used as a crane, is not in any way designed for lifting, supporting, or transporting humans. Failure to follow specified load limitations can result in serious bodily injury or death.
  • Applications involving vacuums, magnets, or other high impact lifters are considered severe usage (continuous service) and require special design considerations. Please see the High-Impact Lifting Protocol and contact factory for special design pricing.
  • All systems with drop rod hangers must be laterally and longitudinally braced. Lateral sway bracing is furnished by others.
  • To prevent trolley from running out of the track, do not operate crane without end stop bolts firmly secured in place on each end of the runway track.
  • Do not locate splice joints more than 48” from the runway support centers when aligning truss track runways.
  • Do not locate splice joints more than 18” from the runway support centers when aligning plain track runways.
  • Do not cantilever the runway track ends more than 18” beyond the runway support centers (not including festoon storage area) on Alu-Track runways.
  • Do not impact end stops at speed. Only impact end stops with caution.
  • Never use end stops for repetitive trolley impacts.
  • Do not operate hoist or crane if cotter pins are not in place and properly bent over on both sides of hoist trolley. Check regularly that the cotter pins are in place and securing the hoist on the hoist trolley.

Applications involving vacuums, magnets, or other high-impact lifters are considered severe usage (continuous service) per the Monorail Manufacturers Association (MMA) and may require special design considerations. See below.

  • Electromagnet lifting systems require the system capacity to be derated by 50%.
  • Vacuum lifting systems that use an electric hoist never require the capacity to be derated.
  • Vacuum lifting systems that use vacuum hose trolleys require the system to be derated by 50% if the system has any of the following attributes. Please contact Spanco with any questions about the system attributes below.
  • The operational time (system is in motion) is consistently greater than 50% of the work period and the lifted load is consistently greater than 50% of the rated capacity.
  • The equipment performs more than 20 lifts per hour.
  • The average lift is 15 feet or more.

NOTE: Applications that exceed 40 lifts per hour can be problematic due to unusually high-cycle rates. If an application exceeds 40 lifts per hour, please provide as much information as possible about the lifting process and the item(s) being lifted.

Vacuum lifting systems that use vacuum hose trolleys and do not have any of the system attributes listed above do not require the system capacity to be derated.

Find Where to Buy