Tracking control of gantry and overhead cranes

To ensure that gantry and overhead cranes remain on the rails, several rail guided elements such as wheel flanges and guide pulleys are used. Although these elements can mesh which may lead to noise, stress in the crane construction or wear of the wheels and rails. In order to avoid high-cost maintenance to fix this problem, tracking controllers are used to ensure that the crane wheels are kept central to the rail track. Both sides of the crane drive are controlled with a number of sensors keeping the controller informed about the position and direction of the crane.

Bestech Australia offers laser scanners from Micro-Epsilon with a tracking controller that is wear-resistant even under unfavourable conditions and provides highly precise results. These sensors are used to measure the distance profile using a laser line and provide the exact linear edge position for position control of the gantry crane. 

The profile scanner gives an exact linear detection of edge position with its high resolution.  The sensor is easy to adjust and provides a large measuring range and a higher measuring distance. The laser scanners are available in different classes (Compact, Highspeed and Smart) to fit a vareity of user requirements.

Sensor technology used

Laser profile scanners