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Sel ecti on Of Crane Duty Motors (On photo: Si ngl e gi rder overhead travel i ng crane - max. 12.5t, 4-30m of Demag Cranes &
Components vi a Di rectIndustry.com)
Ashok Parikh
Selection Of Crane Duty Motors (Part 3)
Continued from second part: Selection Of Crane Duty Motors (Part 2)
Derivation Of Cyclic Duration Factor From Dif f erent Duty Cycles
S3 Int ermit t ent Periodic Dut y
S3 - Intermi ttent Peri odi c Duty
S4 - Intermi ttent Peri odi c Duty wi th starti ng
N = Duration of motor operation under rated
conditions
R = Duration of motor at rest and de-energised

Max
= Maximum temperature attained during Duty
cycle
Unless otherwise specif ied, the duration of the duty
cycle is 10 minutes. The recommended values for
CDF are 25, 40 and 60 percent.
S4 Int ermit t ent Periodic Dut y wit h st art ing
D = Duration of starting
N = Duration of motor operation under rated
conditions
R = Duration of motor at rest and de-energised

Max
= Maximum temperature attained during Duty
cycle
S5 Int ermit t ent Periodic Dut y wit h st art ing and
breaking
D = Duration of starting
N = Duration of motor operation under
ratedconditions
R = Duration of motor at rest and de-energised
F = Duration f or electric braking

Max
= Maximum temperature attained during Duty
Cycle
Starting Of Crane Duty Motors
The squirrel cage motors are started with direct-
on-line starters in most of the cranes. Few cranes,
operated more or less on continuous basis, are
f ound operated through a variable voltage variable
f requency (VVVF) drive.
For intermittent duty cranes, provision of VVVF
would be costly af f air.
S5 Intermi ttent Peri odi c Duty wi th starti ng and breaki ng
resistance can be calculated as under.
K = Constant depends on line voltage drop;
varies f rom 0.6 to 1.0. Generally a value 0.8 can
be considered.
V
R
= Rotor voltage (Volts)
I
R
= Rotor Current
T
FL
= Full load torque (kg-m)
T
LR
= Locked Rotor (Starting) Torque
R
rt
= Rotor resistance in Ohms per phase
R
ext
= External rotor resistance per phase to
be added (Ohms) to get torque T
LR
at stand
still.
R
rt
is generally small compared to R
ext
and may
be neglected. However, if required, approximate
R
rt
can be calculated by f ollowing relation:
The starting torque can be increased up to the
value of maximum torque available f or that
particular design. Usually, it is possible to
obtain the starting torque as high as 2.5 times
the normal torque.
Selection Of Motors
Choice of cage and wound motors may be based on the following criteria.
Squirrel Cage Mot ors may be used f or various applicat ions as f ollows:
The driven equipment is to be accelerated rapidly with a f ixed sequence of operation and unif orm
load conditions, e.g. mechanical workshop crane.
If the load conditions are almost identical f or both directions of rotation, e.g. long travel or cross
travel of gantry crane.
In the cranes, which are running at single speed without speed control.
If site conditions are dusty, corrosive, these motors with totally enclosed f an cooled construction
would be robust and would provide services with least maintenance.
Where the cost f actor is to be considered, as cost of cage motor is less than that of slip-ring motor;
The squirrel cage motors f or crane duty are available normally up to 250M f rame size.
Slip-ring mot ors may be used f or various applicat ions as f ollows:
Where very precise speed control is required f or the crane, e.g. inching, slow and f ast handling of
load during hoisting and lowering, alignment of crane over a f urnace opening, etc.
In case of non-unif orm loading conditions and operation is to be carried out in nos. of sequences.
The cranes are required to perf orm large number of starting and reversals during operation.
The cranes are required starting torque of more than 2.5 times the rated torque in general.
Selection
The crane duty motors are always supposed to operate under varying load conditions and sequential
switching due to requirement of handling materials of varied weights (i.e. loads).
Many continuous duty motors even operate under varying load conditions due to chemical process
requirements.
As a common practice, where such variable loads are to be operated, a motor rating is selected based
on the highest anticipated load. However, more ef f icient and cost ef f ective approach is to select the
motor with optimum rating on the basis of the load duration curve f or the particular application.
Selection made on this basis also provides equally ef f ective and satisf actory operation.
Thus as an alternative, it is better to select the motor having rating slightly lower than the peak anticipated
load and let it be operated at overload f or a short time duration, rather than selecting the motor of high
rating that would operate at f ull capacity f or only a short period providing optimum ef f iciency only f or that
much duration. Only concern f or motors operating at higher than its rating is the thermal capacity of
motor, which determines the speed of degradation of the winding insulation.
Applications of various f actors discussed in f oregoing paragraphs combined with this suggestion would
provide better result. However, accurate rating is very dif f icult to determine f or crane duty applications.
CONCLUSION
Most vital and primary technical consideration f or selection of the motor f or any particular application is the
torque required by the load during starting and acceleration periods, especially the relationship between
the maximum torque or breakdown torque generated by the motor and the start-up torque or locked rotor
torque f or both periods.
The thermal capability of motor is determined based on the duty / load cycle. Additionally, where the
totally enclosed fan cooled (TEFC) motor is operated with speed variations, the cooling may be
insuf f icient when the motor is operated at speeds below its rated value.
If the ambient temperature is more than 40C, derating factor would affect the selection of motor.
Good estimate of the switching f requency can help in selecting the appropriate motor f or the proposed
duty cycle.
Reliability is of prime importance in all the services, however, it is general practice to grossly oversize the
motor unnecessarily f or better reliability, which results into sub-optimal energy perf ormance. Better
understanding of the power system and knowledge of operating parameters can certainly aid in reducing
over sizing with no adverse ef f ect on reliability.
Ref erences:
1. Ef f icient Electric Motor Systems Handbook, by Todd Litmann
2. IS:12824-1989; Types of Duty and Classes of Rating Assigned to Rotating Electrical Machines
3. The Technical Literature of Indian Motor Manuf acturers