GANTREX TECHNICAL BULLETIN No.
TB47
Canada Plant & Office
Gantrex Canada Inc.
12 Barr Road
Ajax, ON L1S 3X9
Phone: 905-686-0560
Fax: 905-686-0962
USA Corporate Office
Gantrex Inc.-Pittsburgh Office
2000 Oxford Dr., Suite 400
Bethel Park, PA 15102
Toll Free: 1-800-242-6873
Phone: 412-655-1400
Fax: 412-655-3814
www.Gantrex.com
At present, there are
no North American
Standards regarding
the inspection and
replacement of rails
used for cranes.
Crane Rail Inspection
There are virtually no North American crane design principles for loads and
standards regarding the inspection and load combinations. Both mention
replacement of rails used for overhead inspecting rails, but offer little more than
and gantry cranes, transfer cars and theoretical suggestions based on
other types of rail-mounted material limiting crane skew caused by rail wear.
handling equipment other than railroads.
There are gauges, programs, systems
and algorithms to measure rail wear on
railroad rails, but very little of it can be
used on the unique profiles of crane
rails. Private companies may have their
own internal standards, and some crane
manufacturers have paddled out into
this deep water, but perhaps some new
industry consensus standards are
needed on this topic.
Most crane rails are inspected and/or
replaced based on the instinct or
experience of the user. This approach
can lead either to the premature
replacement of rails or major problems
caused by waiting too long to replace a
Damaged Crane Rail Splice Joint
rail or system. Bad rails can result in
damage to the crane or structure, For member countries of the European
increased emergency downtime and Union, the broad guidelines known as
unplanned and excessive costs. Rails the, “Machinery Directive” require that
that are replaced before they need to be the “manufacturer shall give the wear
is like leaving money on the table. limits of equipment in the maintenance
manual”. Anyone who has been around
International Standards
cranes and runways knows that one of
There are some international standards the big problems is figuring out who is
that address the issue of crane rail the “manufacturer” or responsible party
inspection, and these should be for any crane component below the
examined for possible use in North wheels. The international consensus
America. standards provide little help in
determining how to inspect and when to
ISO 9927-1:2009 covers crane replace crane rails.
inspections, ISO 8686-1 addresses
 GANTREX TECHNICAL BULLETIN
FRA Study
There is also a 1998 report, published
by the United States Department of
Transportation, via the Federal Railway
Administration titled, “Estimation of Rail
Wear Limits Based on Rail Strength
Limitations”. This report considers the
fracture strength of rails, but pertains
mostly to heavy railroad rail.
These numbers were derived based on
analytical tests conducted on heavy rail
sections that are typically used as
railroad rails. The summary of this 1998
document concludes that rail should be
replaced after an allowable wear of 0.5
inches of head loss or 0.6 inches of face
loss. The entire report can be viewed at
the following government web site:
www.fra.dot.gov .
Whiting Crane Handbook
The Whiting Crane Handbook is a great
resource for information on overhead
and gantry cranes. It also contains
some general guidelines as to runway
maintenance and repair, but offers little
guidance with specific rail issues. All
too often, a rail is not replaced until the
rail sweep or end truck bottoms out, and
these repairs must be done on a costly
emergency basis.
AIST Efforts
One group that is currently working on
the issue of rail inspections with two
ongoing projects is the Association for
Iron & Steel Technology, (AIST). The
Cranes Technology Committee (CTC) of
AIST are the producers of Technical
Report #6 for the design of overhead
cranes and Technical Report #13, which
covers mill buildings, including crane
runways. CTC sponsored a recent
survey of crane users to determine rail
No. TB47 Crane Rail Inspection PAGE 2 OF 3
inspection practices and criteria. The
results of the study confirmed that the
methods of inspection and replacement
criteria are varied by crane user and no
real or replacement criteria exist. The
survey also confirmed that the most
prudent crane users inspect their rails
and runways at least once per year,
along with the crane annual inspection.
Rail splice joints are given particular
attention, since they are often the
source of many rail problems, leading to
damage to the overall rail system and to
the crane itself. Misalignment of the
crane wheels and/or rails will also often
create readily observable problems, but
by this time, it is often too late to repair
any one component and can be solved
only replacing rails or wheels.
The survey also indicated that many
users find information from the Crane
Manufacturers Association of America,
(CMAA) to be helpful in terms of runway
alignment tolerances. (In particular, see
the “Maximum Runway Tolerances”
chart in Specification #70.) The most
significant conclusion derived from the
AIST survey and research is that there
should be a limit to the amount of rail
wear, after which replacement should be
considered before severe problems
arise.
The follow-on effort to the survey by the
AIST committee is the development of
an extensive new technical report with a
working title of “Crane Inspection,
Maintenance and Repair Guidelines”.
The intent of this document is to
describe methods of inspection and
replacement criteria for all aspects of
overhead cranes, and it will include a
significant section on rails and runways.
This new technical report could be
available as early as 2013 from AIST.
 PAGE 3 of 3 GANTREX TECHNICAL BULLETIN
Absent any other
replacement criteria,
the 25% rule should
be used as a worst
case scenario.
Rail Wear Types
The two most common types of rail
wear are plastic deformation and edge
wear. Each will occur in every crane rail
application, the severity of which
depends on the loading and duty cycle
of a particular runway. Both types of
wear actually displace or remove metal
from the rail surface. The results of this
wear over a long period of time can
Rail wear gauge, but weaken the rails to the point that further
only for railroad rails. damage may occur, leading to failure.
Obvious Signs of Crane Rail Failure
There are several failures of crane rail
that can be easily identified by a visual
inspection of the rail. These include
breaks in the rail, cracks in the rail head
and propagating cracks from splice bolt
holes.
Other obvious signs include the
aforementioned bottoming of rail
sweeps and end trucks caused by
severe wear of the rail over long periods
Contact Gantrex at:
of use. By the time these conditions are
1-800-242-6873 or discovered, the cost and downtime of
emergency repairs is high, and a better
www.Gantrex.com method to determine when a rail should
be changed is needed.
Perhaps the simplest way to determine
the amount of wear on a crane rail is to
measure the dimensions of the rail and
compare them to the dimensions of the
No. TB47 Crane Rail Inspection
rail when it was new. This can be done
by referencing specification sheets for
the given rail size, or by simply
measuring the rail at a point, such as
the very ends that see little or no crane
travel.
The 25% Rule
One possible method to determine the
amount of allowable rail wear is based
on the wheel load charts found in the
Whiting Crane Handbook. It can be
derived that if a given rail loses 25% of
its overall mass, the rail selection would
drop one complete rail size category,
based solely on the mass of the smaller
rail as it pertains to the wheel load. Said
in another way, if a rail is worn to the
extent that 25% of its mass is has
disappeared, the wheel load would
exceed the amount listed for that rail
size. While this is a basic principle, it
can serve as a ‘lower limit’ of rail fitness
for duty. Actual values may vary, based
on the completion of the research, but
one large crane manufacturer already
uses this criteria when training crane
inspectors regarding rail inspection.
From a practical view, the point at which
a given heavy rail should be replaced is
most likely well before an aggregate
loss of material. According to the FRA
study, a 0.5” loss of head dimension
alone would account for 25% of the rail
mass alone. Absent any obvious
cracking or damage, the 25% rule could
be used as a maximum amount of
allowable rail wear.
Conclusion
Further study to determine more
exacting values of replacement should
be considered by the various technical
committees responsible for crane, rail
and runway design. END.
Rev 0 = 4/24/12