Transporte y Logística Internacional

What happens if a cranes wire is damaged? Here the solution with a hands-on Tutorial!

As I talked this weekend to my cousin and told him about this blog he made an interesting comment, that might be useful for those who end up with a Logistics company. He explained me how to exchange

the hoisting-wire of an auxiliary hook from a NMF-crane (Neuenfelder Maschinenfabrik crane). On the left you see such a crane. My cousin has been working for years as a second officer at a container ship, that's why he knows how it works.

First of all what exactly happened? The wire from the crane they used did split slowly and so it wasn’t safe anymore when transporting merchandise. Still it’s no reason to give up on that crane, you just have to change the wire.

And here a quick overview of the solution:

01. Bring the hook on deck
02. Secure the hook properly 
03. Disconnect the dead end from the boom
04. Remove the old wire from the storage drum
05. Connect the old and the new wire
06. Heave up the new wire
07. Stop up the new wire in the crane
08. Remove the old wire from the storage drum
09. Connect the new wire to the storage drum
10. Bring the wire on the storage drum
11. Connect the dead end to the end of the boom
12. Bring the securing-plate in position
13. Remove the lashing of the hook
14. Heave up the hook! FINISH!

Equipment you need: 1x man-basket, 4x lashing-belts, 1x grinding machine with cutting- and grinding-disk, 1x spanner (24 mm and 8 mm), 4x 30-by-30-cm-dunnage-block, ropes, 1x chain-block, 2x chain/rope for stopping purpose, 2nd crane, 1x crowbar, 1 roll duct-tape, 1 roll of thin steel wire, 1x Chinese finger, 1x knife, 1x serving mallets

Spare parts

you need: hoisting wire, grease “MobilGrease XHP 222 - lithium complex grease” (one bucket will be enough)

In detail, here are the different steps:

01. Bring the hook on deck

First of all bring the boom down as much as possible. You can use the limit switch to lower the boom as much down as possible.

Lower down the hook to the deck level and set it down on two 30-by-30-cm-dunnage-blocks. Take care that the hook doesn’t touch the deck and rests safely!

02. Secure the hook properly

Secure the hook in a proper way by using four lashing-belts. Finally the hook must stay in the upright position without any support from the hoisting wire.

Now bring the storage-drum of the new wire in position. It must be in one line with the hook to ensure a smooth and safe exchange

without any damage!

03. Disconnect the dead end from the boom

Remove the securing-plate from the pin. When the nuts are too rusty you can use a grinding-machine.

Stop up the wire by using a stopper-chain/rope and a chain-block.

Remove the pin from the hook-swivel.

Connect a rope to the dead end of the wire and lower it down to the deck-level.

04. Remove the old wire from the storage drum

When the wire is on deck, connect it to the second crane-hook.

Start heaving up the wire; the other crane (the one with the broken wire) must give slack accordingly. When the heaving-up-hook cannot heave up any more, the wire shall be lowered down to deck-level and the procedure starts again. Do this as long as you have five turns remaining on the storage drum.

IMPORTANT: Keep an eye on the storage drum! The wire shall not becoming slack in any moment!

HINT: Put the old wire on deck in a 8-shape! This might be the easiest way of stowage!

05. Connect the old and the new wire

Put some thin wire and on top duct tape at the point where you want to cut the wire. Reason: Avoid unclear ends. Cut the wire by grinding machine.

Put the Chinese finger in position and wrap around thin steel wire at the end (use a serving mallets to bring the thin wire tight to the hoisting wire). Secure the thin wire by using duct-tape.

In case you have a Chinese finger consisting of two separate items, just connect them by the swivel.

HINT: Use a Chinese finger consisting of two separate items! They will get connected by a swivel. Reason: The wire will turn itself in the finger and maybe get loose in case you have only ONE finger.

06. Heave up the new wire

In the picture you can see the set-up of hook-new- storage-drum - as said before they have to be in one line straight under the boom.

When the old and the new wire is connected, start heaving up the wire. Take care when the Chinese finger passes a sheave! One guy has to be on standby on the storage drum of the new wire and has to have a look that it doesn’t get slack.

After heaving up the first ten to fifteen meters start greasing the wire. The first part of the wire shall be without any grease because it will be the connection to the storage drum and will stay there in a fixed position.

07. Stop up the new wire in the crane! Let’s go into the crane

When the engrossed part of the new wire is at the storage drum in the crane, stop heaving up.

Stop up the new wire by using a stopper- chain/rope.

Slack the wire up to the moment when the Chinese finger is free of the storage drum and disconnect it.

Remove the Chinese finger from both ends of the wire.

08. Remove the old wire from the storage drum

Turn the storage drum (slack) and lower down the old wire to deck-level accordingly.

When you have only the fixed part remaining, stop lowering down and bring a stopper-chain/rope in position at the old wire. Connect a long rope to the stopper. Take away the securing-items (only the first two completely), remove and lower down the remaining wire by hand.

For the very last end you can use the Chinese finger again (connected to a rope) to lower down the wire to the deck-level safely.

HINT: Put the old wire on deck in a 8-shape! This might be the easiest way of stowage!

09. Connect the new wire to the storage drum

The next step is the connection of the new wire to the drum. The wire must pass the wire-canal and the end has to be secured by the three securing- items. Between the wire canal and the securing- items there have to be at least three turns on the drum. Move the wire by hand - it easy to handle by two guys!

HINT: It might be difficult to put the wire through the wire-canal. The best way might be to use the Chinese finger to pull it through. Connect a chain- block at the Chinese finger and pull the wire in the direction of the drum (chain-block in the lower part of the drum, wire-canal in the upper position).

10. Bring the wire on the storage drum

When the new wire is properly secured you can start to heave up the wire by turning the drum. Don’t forget to grease the wire again.

Take care that the wire will find its proper resting - position (see picture) otherwise you may damage the wire! Stop heaving up when only five turns remain on the spare-part-drum on deck. Remove the turns from these drum and put them aside on deck.

11. Connect the dead end to the end of the boom! Continue your work on deck

In case the swivel-pin is rusty, just remove this rust properly.

Use the man-basket to bring the dead end of the wire to the swivel on the booms end. Don’t forget to grease this part of the wire, too! Connect the wire to the swivel by the pin.

HINT: Because there was a lot space between the pin and the thimble (Grmn: “Kausch”), we manufactured a bush (Grmn: “Lagerbuchse”) made of Teflon which fits in this gap properly! Usually it is made of brass - we will and have to exchange it as soon as possible!

12. Bring the securing-plate in position

(Almost) Last but not least bring the securing-plate in position.

Normally it is fixed by bolts (size: 8); in our case they were so rusty that we got the permission from Seilhering to bring this securing-plate in position by welding spots.