Crane Buffers for Heavy Machinery: Ensuring Safe Operations in India
Paresh Advani
In heavy machinery industries across India, various types of cranes are used—ranging from overhead cranes to EOT cranes, both for indoor and outdoor applications. These cranes carry not only their own weight but also the weight of the materials they are designed to move.
During long travel or cross travel operations, cranes can sometimes overshoot their designated stop points due to high momentum, system failure, or power loss. In such cases, collisions may occur, leading to serious safety risks and potential equipment damage.
At the end of any reciprocating motion, a crane must come to a complete stop—there’s no concept of infinite motion. That’s where crane buffers, or shock absorbers, play a critical role.
Understanding the Stopping Force of a Crane
To calculate the total force required to safely stop a moving crane, you must consider:
The self-weight of the crane
The payload being carried
The transit speed during motion
Even though cranes are often equipped with limit switches and mechanical brakes, there are situations—like brake failure or power outage—where these systems may not prevent overshooting. This is where shock absorbers become essential.
Impact Energy Formula:
Impact Energy = 1.5 × Mass × Velocity² (1.5mv²)
Typically based on 0.5% to 0.7% of the crane’s transit speed.
4 Common Collision Scenarios in Crane Systems
The nature of the collision helps determine the type and number of shock absorbers required. Here are four common collision types:
Shock absorber on a fixed stopperShock absorbers on both the moving crane and the fixed stopperShock absorber only on the moving crane (colliding with another moving object without a buffer)Shock absorbers on both moving cranes
Adonitech has developed a specialized software tool to help engineers accurately calculate energy absorption needs based on these scenarios.
The tool will then predict the exact energy absorption capacity needed from a shock absorber. This ensures compliance with government-specified safety standards and helps you design safer, more efficient systems.
Why Choose Adonitech
Our in-house software is built using the latest regulatory guidelines and engineering principles. By integrating these standards into our shock absorber designs, Adonitech helps clients across India and abroad create safer work environments for heavy machinery operations.
Whether you’re working in steel, automotive, or any other industrial sector, Adonitech delivers customized and high-performance shock absorption solutions tailored to your crane system.
