West End Radiator – Customizing an overhead crane for an existing space

As the home of Manitoba’s only on-site radiator manufacturer, West End Radiator offers custom-built product direct from their production floor to their service centre. They offer the largest in-stock selection of complete industrial radiators, charge air coolers and condensers in the province.

The CHALLENGE

With a growing business in the large industrial cooling systems, their operations needed a better method for handling these heavy products and parts. Floor space was limited on their very active production floor, using forklifts for these lifts was both cumbersome and problematic. As well as safety concerns, they wanted a lifting system that would be usable by an individual, spanned the entire shop floor, and could handle different sizes of materials and products.

The crane system has cut down on labour, it’s cut down on guys with sore backs, it’s cut down on chiropractors or sick days from lifting too much. Now, if an employee has a sore back, they aren’t doing what they are supposed to be doing.

Justin Feeleus, Manager/Partner

The SOLUTION

Acculift was determined to maximise the usable lifting area of the system, cover all work stations, and design a system that would be a part of the workspace giving all workers access to the lifting system in their respective work cells.

Acculift designed a system with three key features that took advantage of the space in the environment.

Columns were run through the mezzanine to maximize shop floor coverage of the overhead lifting system.
Existing shelving was altered to allow other columns to be placed against the wall to maximize the coverage area.
A hoist was chosen that struck a balance of speed and versatility.

With an effective crane span that no longer required forklifts in the production floor, West End Radiator has a safer work environment that allows the product to be moved to various locations on their production floor. By designing around and through existing structures the overhead crane system was designed to maximize the coverage of floor space for lifting.

With a custom-designed lifting solution in place, West End Radiator reduced both labour requirements for lifting products and reduced the potential for back injuries.