50 Technical Article

The Evolution of the AIST Cranes Technology Committee:

Ambitions, Membership and Collaborations

The Association of Iron and Steel Electrical Engineers was organized in 1907. In October 1909,
Technical Report No. 6 was adapted, originally titled “The General Crane Specification,” as a
bidders’ specification for electrical overhead traveling cranes. From this 107-year history, the AIST
Cranes Technology Committee has successfully maintained a healthy membership and traveled
through constantly changing technological advancements. The evolution, ambitions, membership
and collaborations of this group will be revealed.

Author
Charles A. Totten
sales engineer,
A t the turn of the 20th century,
the United States became the
dominant world steel market sup-
T&M Equipment Co.,
Leavenworth, Ind., USA plier, providing more than 40% of
charles.totten2@gmail.com the world’s steel. At Carnegie Steel,
people found that, by installing
electric overhead traveling (EOT)
cranes, they could speed up produc-
tion, therefore boosting the capacity
of the mills. This steel company, the
largest in the U.S. at the time, was
also the lowest-cost producer and
the future demand for steel seemed
inexhaustible. In 1901, it became
United States Steel Corporation.
The Association of Iron and
Steel Electrical Engineers, AISEE,
was organized in 1907. In October
1909, the “The General Crane
Specification,” as a bidders’ speci-
fication for electrical overhead
traveling cranes was created and

Figure 1
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I

Crane trolley built to Technical Report No. 6 specification.

I

This article is available online at AIST.org for 30 days following publication.

 51

approved. It was six pages long, including the cover Collaborations – Technical Report No. 6
sheet, plus three sheets for bidders’ data information.
The Carnegie Steel Company Crane Specification Since 1910, AIST and its predecessors have sponsored
was the basis of this new document. The goal of a series of empirically and technologically advancing
this document was to become the standard for steel specifications for electric overhead traveling cranes
mills and ensure each bidding crane manufacturer for steel mill service. Such specifications have been
was quoting the equivalent machine in all its char- required since it has long recognized that steel mill
acteristics and design features. This effort continues cranes must be of strong, rugged construction for
today as the first priority of the current AIST Crane 24-hour service, 7 days a week. It was required that two
Technology Committee (CTC), and in Technical Report complete sets of detail drawings of the “as built” crane
No. 6, “Specification for Electrical Overhead Traveling be delivered to the customer before final payment
Cranes for Steel Mill Service.” is made. These specifications, which were originally
In 1917, the first record of a formal crane committee issued in 1910, have been reissued in 1916, 1919, 1929,
was listed as AISEE Standardization Committee with 1938, 1942, 1949, 1968, 1969, 1991 and 2005.
six divisions, and Division 5 — Cranes was included.
In 1918, the divisions were changed to subcommit- 1919: Crane Specification — This specification further
tees and the subcommittee on cranes was created. modernized crane data by including strength of mate-
In 1936, the AISEE was renamed the Association of rials, factors of safety, rolled or forged steel wheels,
Iron and Steel Engineers (AISE). This renaming was diametrical pitch for gearing, box-type girders, mag-
due to the natural development of the organization netic shoe brakes and magnetic controls.
into a more comprehensive and expanded coverage of
the entire steel industry and the specialized divisions 1929: Association for Iron and Steel Electrical Engineers —
of manufacturing that are included. Electrical Overhead Traveling Crane Specifications — This
During 1968, as had happened in the past, the specification included details and information sheets
crane subcommittee was broken up into various com- for the purchaser for a uniform proposal. Safety items
ponent subcommittees for standardizing of compo- were added and provision for using anti-friction bear-
nents. Eventually, three sections became the practice: ings included.
electrical, mechanical and structural. These groups
further mastered the development of the crane’s
design of components, equipment and structure.
On 1 January 2004, the AISE joined with the Iron
& Steel Society (ISS), another steel-dedicated organi-
zation and the new consolidated organization is now
named the Association for Iron & Steel Technology
Figure 2
(AIST). The crane committee was named the Cranes
Operating Committee. In November 2008, the name
was changed to the Cranes Technology Committee
and remains so today.
The mission of AIST is “to advance the technical
development, production, processing and applica-
tion of iron and steel.” There is the vision “to be a
global leader in networking, education and sustain-
ability programs for advancing iron and steel technol-
ogy.” Today, the organization has a formal annual
internal review with all its Technology Committees
and Member Chapters, called the AIST Leadership
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Conference, to evaluate the goals and processes are

currently up to date to insure it evolves so it is the best
I

the organization it can be.

This Association is a non-profit organization with
18,000 members from more than 70 countries, with
30 Technology Committees and 22 local Member
Chapters. AIST represents an incomparable network
of steel industry knowledge and expertise.
I

First Association of Iron and Steel Electrical Engineers

(AISEE) meeting proceedings.
52 Technical Article
Figure 3
Technical Report No. 6 specification, 1949.
1949: Association for Iron and Steel Engineers Specification
for Electrical Overhead Traveling Cranes for Steel Mill
Service — AIST Standard No. 6 — For the first time,
the crane specification project has been assigned a
standard number and adapted by the AIST Board
of Directors, AIST Standard No. 6. There was a 1942
revision to the specification, and this 1949 specifica-
tion included a new, improved procedure for specify-
ing crane gears based on a minimum set by either a
strength or durability requirement. Major revisions
to the roller bearing tables included a variable bore
as an addition to the old specification. There was
the addition of standards for solid couplings, crane
wheels and sheaves. These three were adapted since
the last revision. Also, the 135 lb./yard section was
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added for crane usage, and the 105, 135 and 175 lb.
sections were now available. A new method of select-
I
ing motors was introduced and has been extensively
revised. This method was based on characteristic
curves of the motor and attempts to select the motor
to meet its actual load. Consideration of these items
means more information will have to be given to the
control manufacturer.
In March 1947, when the Crane Committee was
I
going over the specification, the question of crane ser-
vice came up to see if it could be applied when setting
up bridge motor horsepower requirements. The ques-
tion was how much crane service is actually per-
formed. Until that time, each man’s estimate was all
that was available to go on, and those estimates widely
varied and were based on casual observations. Before
individual crane classes could be adapted, it was sug-
gested that a crane survey be performed. Eleven steel
companies became involved and this survey covered
more than 50% of the ingot capacity of the United
States steel industry. This crane service data repre-
sents a rational approach to logically designing the
various parts of the crane. This 1949 crane specifica-
tion was the basis for manufacturing many cranes
currently operating in the United States and was not
revised with a new specification for 20 years.
1 May 1969: Technical Report No. 6 (Tentative) — Up
until the 1950s, the design of the overhead cranes
was a somewhat pragmatic basis — if it works, fine; if
a component fails, beef it up. Then two things hap-
pened that caused problems. The first was welded
construction instead of rivets, which made cranes
more rigid. This increased the effect of horizontal
impact, but also created stress concentrations and
complicated the stress analysis of such things as girder
end connections. The second item was an increase in
capacity, span and speed to the point it became attrac-
tive to use new and stronger materials such as shafts
and gears in order to keep the weight down.
After the 1949 specification was issued, the Crane
Committee continued year by year working on the
crane specification items with the goal of updating
a new edition. Work on wheel standardization com-
pleted by the Wheel Committee in 1954 was decided
to be part of the next-issued specification. Canvassing
to get information from the industry on current crane
problems being experienced was accomplished. More
information on wheel failures and welding problems
were investigated, as it was evident most crane prob-
lems in this period were related to the welding pro-
cess. The plan for introducing an AC Cranes section
was also explored and the adapted report was pub-
lished in the 1960 Annual Proceedings. In 1962, the
American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) pub-
lished new specifications for structural design, which
necessitated redoing much of the structural section.
In 1963, the progress of the committee was noted as
being very slow due to the lack of manpower available
by the producers. The AISE staff and the Research
Committee made efforts to engage someone to carry
out this work. Mr. Livingston of U. S. Steel had for sev-
eral years worked on accomplishing this update and
he retired in 1965. In 1966, the new chairman from
J&L Steel agreed to continue this work with an April
1968 estimated as a completion date. Three working
groups — Electrical, Mechanical, and Structural —
were established and were in charge of reviewing their

Figure 4
(a) (b)
Technical Report No. 6 specification, 1968 (a) and 1969 (b).
specific sections and come up with any needed revi-
sions for the next Technical Report No. 6.
At the AISE Annual Convention of June 1968, a
paper covering the three sections of the specification
was presented. All the items that had been worked on
for the past 20 years were included in the specifica-
tion, as well as allowable wheel load tables, crane limit
switch and motor selection methods.
1991: Technical Report No. 6 — September 1991 was
the next issue of Technical Report No. 6. AISE had
been contacted many times that the report needed
to be updated, but progress was very slow. Leading
up to this time the committee was organized and
divided into three sections that met separately. These
were working group (WG) #1 (Electrical), WG #2
(Mechanical) and WG #3 (Structural). Frequent meet-
ings were conducted at different plants and off-plant
sites to finally complete the update.
This updated 1991 specification allowed for a crane
to be designed from a selection of four service classes.
It provided owners, engineers and manufacturers with
a comprehensive and rational approach to the design
and construction of steel mill cranes and other cranes
having a related or similar usage.
This specification was divided into four main sec-
tions: General, Structural, Mechanical and Electrical,
and their relative commentaries and appendices.
In the Structural Section, fatigue provisions had
been expanded to include four service classes based
on an equivalent cycle equation, as a means for fine-
tuning a design with intermediate values between
53
class limits. The allowable design
stresses, which formerly were
based on American Association
State Highway and Transportation
Officials (AASHTO), had been
revised to conform with AISC.
There are several reasons for this
approach. In the past, failures
were not typically the result of
inadequate allowable stresses, but
rather were attributed to poor
analysis and fatigue details. With
finite element techniques and
computer analysis design, meth-
ods have improved. Also, several
items contributing to the con-
sideration of AASHTO do not
apply to the crane environment.
These can be defined as future
code changes due to legislative
action, lack of maintenance con-
trol in the public section and a
difference in exposure such as
road salts.
The Mechanical Section was
also revised to allow more decisions to be made
based on duty cycles. Examples of this are options in
rope fleet angles, rope drum and rope sheave diam-
eters, and other areas. Crane hook design is based
on infinite life, unless the owner specifies finite life.
Considerable information on method of analysis of
trapezoidal-shaped hooks of both fish-hook and sister-
hook configuration was added to the commentary.
The crane wheel and crane rail section was expanded
with allowable wheel load guides for both heat-treated
and case-hardened wheels. Tables with speed modi-
fication factors and proposed service factors (based
on load cycles) to determine maximum wheel loads
were added. A special note was made (3.7) that crane
bridge wheel flange/rail lubricators are essential for
long wheel and rail service life. The commentary
included descriptions of various available technolo-
gies for heat treatment of steel crane wheels. The
bumper section had the addition of a crane bumper
end force example. It showed the option to reduce
end forces by increasing bumper stroke.
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The Gearing Section now included more defini-
tive metallurgical specification and classifications. A
I
figure depicting depth of effective case at pitch line
was now shown.
Finally, the commentary amplified the descriptions
of infinite and finite life and their relationship to
crane service life and failure modes. The commentary
continued to include the summary of conditions that
affect the fatigue strength of machinery components.
I
The Electrical Section followed the same design
approach used in the 1969 (tentative) specification.
54 Technical Article
Figure 5
It included a commentary that supplemented and
explained the basis and application of portions of
the Electrical Section. There were a number of areas
in this section that called for greater input from the
owner to the equipment supplier to ensure adequate
equipment design without over design. It is very
important that the supplier and the owner take the
time to define as accurately as possible the design
criteria, such as the most severe repetitive duty cycle,
the intervals of slow speed operation, the control to
be used, the ambient temperature, the emergency
operating requirements, the normal supply voltage
swings and the acceleration requirements. There
were 12 subsections in the Electrical Section that dealt
with the electrical equipment requirements for all
classes of cranes used or required in the steel industry.
These subsections included equipment selection, safe-
ty requirements and good manufacturing practices.
All of the information in this specification was
reviewed and updated to the current state-of-the-art
procedures for design. However, latitude was provided
for even more advanced proven techniques.

2005: Technical Report No. 6 — The June 2005 issue

of Technical Report No. 6, “Specification for Electric
Overhead Traveling Cranes for Steel Mill Service,”
is the third update since the 1991 edition. This is
the first issue of the standard for the newly named
Association for Iron & Steel Technology governance.
A mission statement was established for the Cranes
Technology Committee:
“To develop specifications for dependable cranes
that can be properly designed, installed and main-
tained; also, to promote new technologies and com-
municate more efficient operational and mainte-
nance practices through networking for the continu-
ous improvement of heavy industrial cranes.”
The goal of this latest document is to outline proven
essential properties, maintenance-friendly designs,
and flexible and practical options for various applica-
tions in the plant so safe, reliable, dependable and low-
maintenance-cost cranes are the norm. These quality
features are recognized and have proven applicable
to other industrial environments as well. Four distinct
service classes of cranes are now listed by this speci-
fication. This gives the purchaser a method to match
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Technical Report No. 6 specification, 2005.
previously identified by the steel company manufac-
turer’s names. The rail sections will be identified by
rail size only. The recognized and unwanted abrasive
interaction of the bridge wheel flanges with the rails
has resulted in precise wheel to axle angular deviation
standards. Included are requirements for machining
of the wheel rims after heat treating to ensure very
accurate measurements can be performed. Additional
sketches were added and Fig. OIS-1 was modified for
clarity in this effort.
The Electrical Section has had the most changes in
the new edition. This is where technology is evolving
the fastest. Brake protection and issues of brake type
includes commentary. In Motor Size Selection, the
typical crane service data Table 4.1 has been moved to
the Appendix Section. A new Table 4.1 has been added

the duty cycle of the application without overdesign- to reflect a more life cycle approach related to crane
ing the crane and increasing its manufacturing costs. service class when selecting motors. Tables 4.4 and 4.5
I

It is a comprehensive and rational approach to the
design and construction of steel mill cranes and other
cranes that have related or similar usage.
The General and Structural Sections were rela-
tively unchanged. The Mechanical Section has seen
some changes to allow more competitive designs in
the travel drives by allowing gear motor-type drives.
I
should be used to select the Electrical Service Class
based on percent time-on. Wireless control systems on
cranes are specified for conformance to NEMA ICS 8
Part 1. The latest solid-state controls, DC to DC Static
Control has been added to provide proper application
of static control using DC – DC power to DC series
or shunt motors on EOT cranes. Adjustable voltage

The gear design service factor table was modified DC control has been modified to enhance this type
appropriately. The crane rail section title blocks were control by specifying the use of dynamic braking and
 55

Figure 6
other features of this drive type. An entire new section
on Operator Interfaces has been added to identify the
application of various styles of operator interfaces fol-
lowing established regulatory guidelines and general
industry practices.

Summary of Technical Report No. 6 — Technical Report

Iron & Steel Technology

No. 6 is a work in progress. There have been many
previous editions and most likely there will be more
in the future. As the world gets smaller and smaller
and more international standards are developed, it is
likely a universal crane standard will emerge and be
accepted. We believe many of the qualities and fea-
2016 AIST President
tures in this document will prevail. Wendell L. Carter
Many thanks to the large membership of the Cranes
Technology Committee (past and present), who have
dedicated their time and knowledge to review, revise,
improve and upgrade this edition. There are too

June 2016
many to name.

Collaborations: Technical Papers Presented at Annual

Vol. 13, No. 6

Conventions and Then Published in the Proceedings

and in Iron & Steel Engineer, Now Iron & Steel
Technology

On 1 January 1923, the Iron & Steel Engineer maga-

A Publication of the Association for Iron & Steel Technology

zine was commissioned to publish information about

Iron & Steel Technology magazine, June 2016, which featured
the steel industry. Cranes were featured in some material handling technologies.
prime articles such as:

• 1952: “Crane Wheel Tread Contours.”

• 1955: “Taper vs. Straight Tread Crane Wheels.” circulation of crane developments and happenings
• 1956: “Correct Crane Runway Design — continues today since the June issue of Iron & Steel
Minimizes Maintenance.” Technology magazine is dedicated to material handling
• 1958: “Bridge Drives for Overhead Traveling subjects, which usually has a crane or related build-
Cranes (A-4 design commissioned).” ing/runway paper included. One might notice crane
• 1958: “Standardized Component Parts for wheels seem to get a great deal of attention. Much of
Heavy Duty Mill Type Cranes.” the controversy still exists from the very beginning
• 1959: “Application of Cushioning Material arguments.
Under Crane Rails.” In the 1950s and early 1960s, there was a surge of
• 1960: “Crane Bridge Wheel and Drive work done on crane designs, and these items were
Combinations.” presented at conventions; as they were published, the
• 1960: “The Selection of Crane Wheels.” discussion by questioners was included in the pub-
• 1962: “Crane Rail Lubrication.” lished article. This practice continued until the early
• 1966: “Research on Shelling of Crane Wheels.” 1970s. Several of these papers had “discussers” who
JUN 2018    IRON & STEEL TECHNOLOGY   AIST.ORG

• 1971: “Prediction and Analysis of Crane Wheel were members of the 1949 specification crane com-
Service Life.” mittee. This was a period of risk-taking new designs
I

• 1977: “Newest Methods Applied to Crane
Wheel Calculations in Europe.”
Over the years, there were many more technical
papers authored on cranes and published in the
magazine. AIST has a “Reference Handbook for
EOT Cranes” available with a collection of previously
and innovation and it included the drive arrangement
called the A-4. Today this A-4 drive arrangement is
the most commonly used drive on new cranes. This
was also the time when the steel companies had gener-
ated their own company specifications with references
to Technical Report No. 6. They were confident in the
knowledge that the Technical Report No. 6 designs were
I

published papers. One edition is for Electrical and now demonstrating to be very reliable and could stand
another for Mechanical papers. This priority of public up to the conditions in the steel plants.
56 Technical Article
Figure 7
Collaboration – Crane Innovator of the Year Award

The Material Handling Division, Division IX, has one

award and that is the Crane Innovator of the Year
Award, sponsored by the CTC. Innovative changes
do not just happen — someone must recognize a
change is needed; this is the change advocate. This
person has the leadership characteristic of challeng-
ing the system and also the enduring tenacity to
accept responsibility to take the innovation to a suc-
cessful end, which often will have some unintended
consequences that must be overcome. Selecting the
award winner starts with the paper presented either at
AISTech or at the Annual Crane Symposium. At the
fall CTC meeting, three candidates are nominated
and three champions volunteer, one for each nomi-
nee, with the responsibility to give a presentation at
the spring meeting supporting his nominee. Then
at this meeting the entire committee in attendance
conducts a secret vote to determine the winner. This
award has been given annually since 2007 and usually
occurs at the next Annual Crane Symposium. The
winner’s paper is typically then published in Iron &
Steel Technology.

Collaboration — Crane/Building Interacting Task Force

Electrical Overhead Traveling Crane Reference Handbook.
In order to develop a rational basis for the load fac-
tors to be used in the AISE codes for representing
the effect of crane operations for the cost-effective
design of future development of mill building struc- Figure 8
tures in the early 1990s, a proposal composed by the
Crane Subcommittee No. 6 and Subcommittee No. 13
Design and Construction of Mill Buildings members
was developed. The scope of the work was to create an
analytical method and correlating field test program
to determine the dynamic forces applied by the crane,
including crane skewing that are transferred by the
crane to the supporting mill building structure. Very
interesting work was performed by this task force.

Collaborations – Annual Crane Symposium

In 1992, the subcommittee arranged what was called

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a Roundtable Discussion on crane wheels. This was

the first Crane Symposium. It was held at the Airport Crane bridge in manufacturing shop.
I

Holiday Inn in Pittsburgh, Pa., USA. This first sympo-

sium had a single subject: crane wheels.
Nearly every year since there has been a Crane
Symposium and the average these days is closer to
220–230 attendees. The symposiums have evolved girders and new technology electrical items like newly
from mechanical items: the wheels, to bridge and developed DC–DC solid-state drives and long-time
trolley drive arrangements, to hoist drives, safety and proven reliable, and work in whatever heat condition
I

fall protection, and a multitude of other pertinent exists, DC contactors. Each new crane-applicable
subjects like structural items such as crane runway innovation that is developed is covered on the crane

symposium schedule. One example of this is the flash-
butt welding of crane rails, which was introduced in
1985. Today, nearly every steel plant and aluminum
plant has decided this is the best joining method and
uses this process for re-railing crane runways. This
was railroad technology that was brought into the
steel industry by crane people. Today, crane rail joint
breaks are a thing of the past. A large load of main-
tenance manpower making short-lived, repeating
repairs, to rail joint breaks on the runways has ended.
Another example of gaining industry-wide acceptance
was the use of the permanent bearing lubricant in
wheel assemblies called polyoil. Again, this has been
shown to increase reliability and reduce maintenance
man hours on cranes.
Over the years there have been more than 4,000
registrants at these symposia. There are too many
presenters to name all that have been contributors.
The 25th Crane Symposium in the U.S. is occur-
ring this month in Pittsburgh. There have been three
international Crane Symposiums as well: in Kosice,
Slovakia, in 2008, and two in Rosario, Argentina,
in 2014 and 2017, as a joint event with the Instituto
Argentino de Siderurgia (IAS).
This initial 1992 event was the beginning of educa-
tional conferences on many of the steel mill subjects
as compiled by the AISE committees. Today approxi-
mately 15 of these two- or three-day training courses
are held each year sponsored by the various AIST
Technology Committees.
Collaborations – Maintenance, Inspection and Repair
Handbook
In 1997, a goal was established for the CTC: to put
together a manual that would benefit new employees
coming to work on steel mill cranes and at the same
time capture the experience of retiring professional
crane people. In 2016, after nine years of meetings,
the final edits of the handbook were completed and
the book ready for publication in 2017. The ambition
is for this training manual to be in every steel plant,
contributing to the development of a highly qualified
crane person’s knowledge even before he/she boards
an electrical overhead traveling crane.
Membership
Based on the Proceedings from 1909, the origi-
nal members of the Association of Iron and Steel
Electrical Engineers were a very exclusive group of
29 steel mill plant executives from 19 different com-
panies with only three job positions: electrical super-
intendents, chief electricians and engineers. The
57
proposal to have associate memberships composed of
assistant superintendents was denied.
These producers were dealing with all the electrical
issues in their various Pennsylvania-area plants, which,
of course, were very similar. Of high concern was the
disastrous number of accidents and fatalities of the
times, which were concentrated in the iron and steel
industry, and cited in Allegheny County, Pa., USA.
These fatalities often involved arc lighting systems
as produced by multiple manufacturers and typically
powered by 1,100 volts. Electrical overhead traveling
cranes were just a part of their coverage responsi-
bilities, but important, since a high percentage of
accidents were contributed to the cranes and their
loads. Selecting crane operators, their “floor hookers”
on and utilizing “torpedoes” on runways, and watch-
men in the cabs were all practiced procedures. People
were hurt from items dropping off the cranes, such as
gear pinions and wrenches. Much credence was given
to the accidents being related directly with produced
tonnage.
Probably in the 1940s, when many stand-alone tech-
nical reports, including Technical Report No. 6, were
being written, the organization decided that it was
necessary for EOT cranes to become a focused section
of the AISE. Its name became Subcommittee No. 6 on
Electrical Overhead Traveling Cranes for Steel Mill
Service. The subcommittee membership was tightly
controlled as a producers’ organization, with individu-
als as members, but now did accept manufacturers
(cranes) membership as individuals.
The 1949 specification was inspired by 20 high-level
plant management personnel from 19 steel plants.
Also included, perhaps for the first time, were non-
producers — there were crane manufacturers’ sup-
port of 13 personnel from 11 companies.
The 1991 Technical Report No. 6 committee members
consisted of 12 producer members from eight steel
companies. There were six members from four crane
manufacturers. There were 11 members from 11 engi-
neering and consulting services companies. There
were eight members from eight different product/
equipment suppliers, three from drive controls, three
from wheels and gears suppliers, and two from rails
and rail clips.
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Today
I
In the last 35–40 years up to 2017, the steel industry has
suffered several economic downturns, consolidations,
reduced capacity and plant shutdowns throughout
the United States, Canada and the rest of the Western
world. At the same time when the integrated steel
mills have been damaged, a new mini-mill steel indus-
I
try has prospered and become very dominant. The
membership of the Cranes Technology Committee
58 Technical Article
reflects this, and is much different and larger than
in the 1980s. This CTC is still a producer organiza-
tion and non-producers are allowed membership, and
there are some slight differences in terms serving as
officers. The January 2017 official CTC membership
was 193 members with 30% being producers. There
were 53 producer members from 15 different steel
companies. There were 36 members from seven differ-
ent crane manufacturing companies. There were 18
members from 15 different engineering or consulting
companies. There were 65 members from 46 different
equipment or product manufacturers. There are 10
members from seven different crane service compa-
nies. Some of these companies do overlap in the busi-
ness provided. For regular meetings, usually about 30
members are present. It is required to attend one of
the four meetings each year.
The AIST Cranes Technology Committee has a
larger scope of responsibilities than just updating
Technical Report No. 6, the original reason for the com-
mittee. The number of steel company chief electrical
engineers attending meetings is limited normally
to very few, if any, and the responsibilities for steel
plant EOT CTC members is now expected to be upon
steel mill frontline crane maintenance supervisors
or department heads, and their skilled workforce to
give expectations, ideas and needs, and then often
relying on the non-producer members to deliver these
new features or functions on new and existing cranes.
There is a wide range of competing crane component
products, such as enhancements for wheels, gears,
hoist drums, sheaves, bearings, radio controls, spe-
cialized sensors, automation, inspection/repair ser-
vice companies, machining, lubrication, safety glass,
brakes, harder rail and clips, solid-state controls, AC
and DC, power collector systems, and below-the-hook
lifting equipment, that did not exist in earlier times
and are now the way crane owners and designers
make cranes just as reliable and maintainable, but
more precisely controlled, safer, faster, more efficient
and at lower life cycle cost.
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I
I
This devotion of the CTC has matured from only
maintaining Technical Report No. 6 to now include
total maintenance on the crane and runway, and a
developed communication system to help make this
part of the entire American steel industry the best in
the world.
Ambitions
The greatest ambition of the Cranes Technology
Committee is to constantly be a justifiable leader and
be relative and connected and forward looking to the
ever-changing requirements for cranes and their run-
ways for the benefit of the users of steel mill cranes.
The specification is always the first priority and
it needs to be regularly updated as needed improve-
ments are recognized and need to be incorporated
in the new issue. Overall the steel personnel are
confident that using the specification results in a
well-designed crane that is full of features that make it
easy to maintain. It has been said by some who think a
Technical Report No. 6 crane is overdesigned and results
in a “gold plated” crane. Closer review of Technical
Report No. 6 shows there are several levels of design
the crane can and should be built to for its special-
ized function. There is also the knowledge that once
the crane is in the plant, the maintenance and repair
processes on the crane should be efficient and effec-
tive and result in as close to zero unplanned outages
occurring as possible. Also, the safety of the workforce
is to always be a guiding principle to follow, and thus
having well-developed procedures and practices cov-
ering all the work that is performed on the crane is a
basic requirement for the skilled crane maintenance
technician.  F
This paper was presented at AISTech 2017 — The Iron & Steel Technology
Conference and Exposition, Nashville, Tenn., USA, and published in the
Conference Proceedings.