Demag Cranes Chosen for US Airbus Assembly Line
Plastics Business
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Ten Demag process cranes, like this one at the Airbus assembly line in Hamburg, Germany, will be installed at the new Airbus assembly facility in Mobile, AL.
Terex Material Handling has been awarded a contract by Airbus to supply Demag crane installations for its new assembly facility in Mobile, AL. Ten process cranes will be employed for the final assembly of A320 Family aircraft in three production hangars. Measuring up to 218′. in length and offering maximum load capacities of some 25 tons, the process cranes feature up to four suspensions for safe and precise handling of sensitive aircraft components.
The heart of the new Airbus plant is the 836.6′ long Final Assembly Line hangar, where five process cranes will operate in a series of three assembly zones. In zone 1, three cranes will be installed for transporting fuselages for the fuselage assembly operation. In zone two, two wing-handling cranes will be responsible for the lifting motions during the wing assembly process. In zone three, an assembly crane with a five-ton Demag standard-headroom traveling hoist unit will be used for the assembly of the tail units and handling other components.
Two identical Demag process cranes of single-girder design also will be used in the final phase hangar. These cranes feature multiple suspensions and each operates on four crane runways that are arranged parallel to each other. With a length of 131.2′ and a load capacity of five tons, these crane installations are designed for transporting the components swiftly to where they are needed for installation on the aircraft.
The individual parts of the aircraft, such as the fuselage, wings and tail unit, are pre-assembled at locations throughout AirbusÂ’ European production network and will be transported to the transhipment hangar in Mobile. Two single-girder suspension cranes, each equipped with two 7.5 ton Demag hoist units, operate in this hangar, which is upstream of the assembly process. The cranes are employed as stand-alone units, as well as in tandem mode for handling the incoming aircraft components. Monitoring systems provide for synchronized lifting and transport motions with up to four hoist units to ensure that even large and bulky assemblies are handled safely and reliably.
For more information, visit www.demagcranes.com or www.terex.com.
