Unusual Lighting Situation

Status
Not open for further replies.
B

bcorbin

Senior Member
Anyone have any suggestions as to a good way to light a room with an overhead travelling crane in it? The room is 80' x 30'. Ceiling height should be about 23' and I believe the crane rails will be mounted directly to the ceiling. Obviously an industrial setting, but pendant lowbays are clearly out.
 
bcorbin said:
Ceiling height should be about 23' and I believe the crane rails will be mounted directly to the ceiling. Obviously an industrial setting, but pendant lowbays are clearly out.
Click to expand...

Usually there is some clearance, IMO this would be worth following up on to get some real details of the equipment mounting. Some parts may be tight to the ceiling but the gantry part is likely down some.

We have a customer with two large cranes like this and they had room to use 54 watt T-5 HO fixtures. The fixtures where only about 4" deep so if you had 5" or 6" of space you would be good to go.

Depending on the ceiling constriction you might be able to go with recessed fixtures either HIDs or T5-HOs.

The T-5s really do work at these heights.

EDIT poor spelling
 
Last edited:
Thanks, Bob. I'll look into the T5 option, although the facility hasn't even completely jumped on the T8 bandwagon just yet. T5's would save the expense of a lighting contactor too...hmmmm. Perhaps the energy efficiency and life advantage of HID might even be offset by being able to switch the T5's off when no one's around, saving electricity. Thanks again.
 
Rooms with travelling gantry cranes will always have a dark spot under wherever the crane happens to be parked or stopped. This is why specific work area task lighting becomes a little more important.
 
There are several items you shall look at before doing any lighting design.
1. What kind of ceiling it is? Dropped ceiling, open ceiling with joist? If it is dropped ceiling, you may use recessed luminairs. If it has space between joists, you may install luminairs there.
2. How big the space between the crane and ceiling is? It will define if HID fixture or High-bay firture works.
3. What is the room temperature? The light output of HID fixture is not affected by ambient temperature, but High-bay is.
4. How dirty the place will be?
5. Does it matter with dark spot under crane? If it is does, some wall mounted fixtures may help with that.
6. Does it require any shatter resistant protection?

I guess the lighting application is general lighting for the room. After you find out the answer to those questions. You will be able to nail down what kind of luminaire and lighting layout for your project.
 
After doing what David suggests above, make sure your lighting levels are designed for the task being performed. There is nothing more frustrating or dangerous than not having enough light to do your job. Lithonia has some free photometric calculation siftware on their web site.

good luck!
 
mdshunk said:
Rooms with travelling gantry cranes will always have a dark spot under wherever the crane happens to be parked or stopped. This is why specific work area task lighting becomes a little more important.
Click to expand...

We are very fortunate in our shop area; our large 20 ton crane has built in lighting.
 
Also, I think there might be an ansi/asme requirement for clearance from travelling parts- the crane guy should be able to tell ya
 
there is also the option of remote ballasts for the h.i.d. lighting. we have used these before and had good success. while taking away the depth of the ballasts you could gain enough space for the fixture.
 
bcorbin said:
Anyone have any suggestions as to a good way to light a room with an overhead travelling crane in it? The room is 80' x 30'. Ceiling height should be about 23' and I believe the crane rails will be mounted directly to the ceiling. Obviously an industrial setting, but pendant lowbays are clearly out.
Click to expand...

When you say "directly to the ceiling" do you really mean flat against the bottom of the roof? Most buildings big enough for a travelling crane have the roof supported by steel beams or joists so that the crane is actually mounted to the bottom of the roof supporting structure. This structure has a depth therefore leaving space between the top of the crane and roof between joists or beams. Determine the amount of space you have and select a fixture that will fit.
 
While you are at it. You should look out for the poor fella that will be replacing bulbs and ballasts later on! I run in to this all the time. Almost all of our buildings have overhead cranes. The lights are always very hard, sometimes impossible to get to safely after everything is installed.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top