Tele Radio Remote Controls for Air Handling Equipment Facility

Tele Radio remote control systems operate 18 electric overhead traveling (EOT) cranes at Nortek Air Solutions’ new air handling equipment manufacturing facility in Québec, Canada.

Each crane is equipped with three Panther receivers—one for the bridge, a second for hoist / trolley 1 and the third for hoist / trolley 2—all of them controlled with a single transmitter, eliminating the need for festooning. The cranes are used to lift a variety of loads as custom ventilators, coils and air handlers are manufactured in a recently expanded 200,000 sq. ft. facility in Montreal.

The Panther system can be adapted to virtually any standard EOT crane application.

Crane builder CanStahl, part of the Group Industriel Premium Inc. family and a representative of German hoist manufacturer Stahl CraneSystems, installed the cranes. Group Industriel Premium is a long-standing partner of Tele Radio and selected the Panther product line, which offers up to 500m (1,500 ft.) range and is certified under EN ISO 13849-1, Functional Safety of Machinery, as CAT3, PLd.

Of the 18 single-girder EOT cranes, 15 work in tandem with two hoists. Notably, in North America, indoor cranes are traditionally fitted with wire rope hoists. However, to be able to lift loads in tandem operation without any sideways movement of the hook—to ensure a small space between the load hooks and to keep the approach dimension on both sides of the crane bridge to a minimum—chain hoists were selected.

In total, 35 new chain hoists with a lifting capacity between 2,000 and 5,000kg were installed. The spans of the bridge cranes are up to 66 ft. (20.12m). The lifting height of the individual hoists is between 19.7 ft. (6m) and 26.2 ft. (8m). All cranes are fitted with 12-button Tele Radio remote controls.

Alain Leclerc, president at Group Industriel Premium, said: “The Tele Radio systems allow us to build overhead cranes with multiple hoists and no festooning, which is an attractive cost reduction and enhances the appearance and quality of the product we deliver to customers. We have been using Tele Radio products since September 2009 and continue to do so based on quality, robustness, security and availability of spare parts.”

Each crane is equipped with three Panther receivers that communicate with a transmitter, eliminating the need for festooning.

Leclerc reiterated that the Panther system could be adapted to virtually any standard EOT crane application. The system is extremely versatile, accommodating up to 95% of all common crane and hoist applications (single and dual hoist cranes, tandem cranes, with up to four cranes with a single transmitter). For more difficult control solutions, Tele Radio offers the SIL3 PLe-certified Tiger product line, enabling endless custom configurations meeting the most complex industrial remote control demands.

• Nortek is one of Canada’s leading suppliers of innovative customized air handling equipment and has been supplying high-quality products and services for a wide range of applications since 1998. Following the successful installation described above, future projects with Group Industriel Premium, CanStahl and Tele Radio are already in the pipeline.