What is a Gantry Crane?

A gantry crane is a type of crane, often seen in harbours, rail yards, and other industrial areas, that uses a hoist to lift objects.

The hoist is mounted in a hoist trolley which rests on supporting beams that ride, depending on the variant, on either rails or wheels, allowing the crane and the load it is bearing to move freely along a horizontal plane.

In practice, such cranes often resemble the capital letter 'H' and roll along tracks that run parallel to either a rail line or harbour slip. Because they can move a load horizontally, they are often used to lift cargo from a vessel, move it a short distance, and then offload that cargo to a waiting train or truck.

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Welcome to Gantry Cranes UK

We manufacture, hire, offer training and are suppliers of gantry cranes, and variants like container or workstation cranes, that are used along assembly lines in factories, as they allow relatively heavy loads to be lifted and moved over the length of the production line.

Container Gantry Crane

A common variation of the gantry crane is the so-called container crane. These types, as the name implies, are designed specifically to lift intermodal containers from vessels to waiting freight trains, and vice versa. Their hoists have been adapted to lift intermodal containers and, structurally, they differ from standard gantry cranes by having supporting beams that are cantilevered outward from their frame's uprights to cover the width of any waiting ship.

Harbour Cranes

Among notable harbour cranes are Belfast's 'Samson' and 'Goliath'. Built by the German firm Krupp and situated in the shipbuilding yard of Harland and Wolff, the 348 and 315 ft high structures are considered the primary landmarks of the Irish city's skyline. Though shipbuilding orders have trailed off in recent years, efforts have been made by the governments of Northern Ireland and Belfast to preserve the two as part of the country's cultural identity.

Famous Gantry Cranes

One of the most famous harbour cranes was the 'Kockums Crane' of Malmo, Sweden. Soaring to a height of 453 ft, the massive gantry crane was used to build 75 ships before it was dismantled and sold to Hyundai Heavy Industries of South Korea in 2002. The inhabitants of Ulsan, its current home, have nicknamed it the "Tears of Malmo" due to the belief that the Swedes wept when they saw it being taken down.

The strongest gantry crane in the world, however, is the mighty 'Taisun' of Yantai, China. Capable of lifting 20,000 metric tons, the Taisun is used to lift modules for semi-submersibles and vessels used to store oil offloaded from offshore platforms.