Failure analysis of increased rail wear of 200 tons foundry crane track

Abstract The bridge cranes belong among the most often used machines designed for heavy loads handling. The steel supporting structure of these cranes or some specific parts of the bridge crane's construction are exposed to an excessive loading during the crane operation. The crane track, which enables travelling of the crane on the rails, is one of the most loaded and most worn parts of the bridge crane. Therefore it is necessary to perform a periodical control and maintenance of the crane track in order to avoid excessive wear of it. There are arising various negative occurrences during the crane operation if the maintenance of the crane track is neglected. The crane skewing is a very serious and negative phenomenon, which is occurring during the bridge crane operation. This phenomenon is able to cause a wheel lock of the crane or even a fall-out of the crane travel mechanism from the crane track. There is described in this article analysis of the crane skewing process on the crane track during a real crane operation. Experimental measurements, together with computer simulation are the main analytical tools applied in this work.