Give Peas A Chance – A Bulk Loading System

Give Peas A Chance – A Bulk Loading System

Lovingly Made Ingredients, a subsidiary of the UK based company Meatless Farm, has set-up shop in the Stonegate Industrial Park in Calgary. Their first of its kind, the 33,000 square foot facility produces textured plant-based proteins and starches that are used as an alternative protein in vegan and plant-based meats.

It’s no secret that Albertans love their beef, and Calgary is directly in the heartland of the Canadian ranching frontier, so why would an alternative protein company choose “Cow-Town” for the location of its newest processing plant? The answer is simple really. Peas.

Lovingly Made uses protein concentrates, fibres, and starches from yellow peas to create their products. Canada is a world leader in the production of field peas and Alberta is a significant pea producing province in Canada. Lovingly Made chose the city of Calgary based on its fantastic distribution network and central location.

 During the construction of their Stonegate processing facility, Lovingly Made reached out to Kristian to provide a crucial addition to their first processing line.

When the raw plant material arrives at the facility, it is delivered in bulk bags that can easily weigh upwards of 1000kgs each. These bags need to be lifted and placed above the repository so they can be emptied into the ingredient transfer system.

Firstly, Kristian supplied and installed two 1500kg Coffing JLC electric chain hoists, armed with 15’ of lift, to the existing frame above the hoppers. The Coffing JLC electric chain hoist is built for heavy-duty demands with a multiple disc motor brake, overload clutch, and H4 duty rating. With a line capacity of producing 4500 tonnes of protein per year, Kristian determined the JLC was the obvious hoist choice for this application.

Secondly, each hoist was fitted with a below-the-hook attachment called a bulk container lifting beam. These 36” lifting beams are constructed of smooth tubing, ensuring no sharp edges, and a low-headroom design constructed specifically for factory processes.

The bulk bag corner straps are then connected to the four endpoints of the beam, allowing for a safe and even lift above the hoppers.

As of 2021, Lovingly Made Ingredients already has room to expand their facility with several more production lines in the works. With the plant-based meat alternative market expected to be worth 140 billion dollars by 2029, growing their Calgary presence is definitely not a pea-brained idea.

Welcome to Calgary, Lovingly Made!

Welding Machine Acting Up? Let’s Fix It.

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Made to Measure – A Custom Fit Workstation Crane

Made to Measure – A Custom Fit Workstation Crane

When a Calgary manufacturing facility decided to expand their production to include a new aluminum-aging batch oven, they called on Kristian Electric Ltd. to install a new overhead lifting system to handle bundles of aluminum as they are taken to and from the batch oven.

As this was an expansion of their existing production facility, the team at Kristian were tasked to find a crane solution that would fit amongst the existing machinery.

Workstation cranes can be installed beneath and around obstacles; featuring a pre-engineered modular design which can be easily expanded and relocated to any work area. Because of these adaptable features, Kristian selected a Gorbel freestanding workstation crane to fulfill the customer’s specific needs.

Columns are the ‘legs’ of the workstation bridge crane; anchored to the floor for support. Traditionally these legs are uniformly spaced to evenly displace the load-bearing weight, but Kristian had to find an alternate solution to accommodate the facility’s existing equipment.

Wayne Raber, Kristian Calgary’s Project Coordinator, installed each set of columns asymmetrically.

“All three column spacings were different to fit around the equipment,” he explains. “One end was 25’ center, the middle was 37’ center, and the other end was 35’ center.”

Raber’s staggered placement allowed the crane system to safely stand among the pre-existing fixtures without conceding any floor coverage.

Additional to the floor space constraints, the customer required an overhead lifting system that could be retrofitted to their customized lifting frame. The aluminum-bundle lifting frame was designed with two lifting points which could be manipulated evenly or incongruently. This variance was achieved with the inclusion of not one – but three – bridge beams.

The outer two beams, rated at 2000 lbs each, would sustain both hoists, the custom lifting frame, and the load. The center beam, rated at a mere 100 lbs, was specifically included to bear the tractor drives motorizing both the trolley and bridges. Not only did this modification line up perfectly with the customer’s lifting frame; it also allowed the crane to utilize the full distance of the runways.

“On most systems there is only one bridge,” says Raber. “The tractor drive is on one side or the other of each end truck. Incorporating a third centre bridge for the tractor drive allowed us to provide as much bridge travel as possible.”

Once the structural installation was complete, Kristian outfitted the new crane system with two Demag DC-Pro electric chain hoists. As a long-time loyal Demag user, the customer trusted the Demag brand as a reliable choice that would be easily maintained thanks to their convenient local distribution and service partner, Kristian Electric.

“The hoists, trolley drive, and bridge drive were set up with a radio remote control system,” says Raber. “The operator could select Hoist A, Hoist B, or select BOTH, so [the custom lifting frame] could be leveled if they were not synchronized.”

In the end, a few unique obstacles were met with even more unique solutions to tailor-fit the perfect overhead crane system for the customer’s needs.

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Feel The Heat – 4 Applications that Benefit from Induction Heating

Feel The Heat – 4 Applications that Benefit from Induction Heating

The Miller Proheat Induction Heating system utilizes inverter technology, similar to their welding equipment, to convert alternating 60hertz per second to kilohertz per second. This high-frequency alternating current, applied to ferrous metal, creates localized electrical currents called “eddy currents”. The circulating eddy currents flow against the metal’s resistance, thus heating the metal from the inside out.

Since the introduction of the Miller ProHeat induction system in the mid-2000s, induction heating has become a go-to choice in the industry to improve productivity. Applications that would typically require hours to heat can be done in minutes with the Proheat system.

Here are four industrial applications that will benefit greatly from the use of induction heating.

 

1. Preheat and Post-Heat of Welds

Welding preheat is done to reduce issues such as cracking and stress corrosion and to aid the parent and welding material in blending. Heating the area around a welding joint to a temperature under 350°F vastly reduces the cooling rate of the weld and moisture.

Post weld heating is done for similar purposes as preheating, however, at much higher temperatures (1150°F-1300°F) This returns the grain structure of the parent material and welded material to a normalized state.

Both post and pre-heat have traditionally been achieved with open flame, resistance heating, and convection ovens. However, these processes tend to cause inconsistent temperatures, untimely results, and require cumbersome labour. Induction heating allows for quick set-up (only minutes) and results between 4 to 12 hours, including ramp up and cool downtime. Along with steady and even heat disbursement, an induction system can be customized to the work itself, with the flexibility to heat many different sizes and shapes of metal.

2. Hydrogen Bake-Out

 

When the welding process is complete, residual stresses in the material can be left behind. Hydrogen cracking, (also known as delayed cracking, cold cracking, hydrogen-assisted cracking, hydrogen-induced cracking, and hydrogen embrittlement to name a few), can occur in a weld immediately or up to 72 hours after welding is completed. This is caused by atomic hydrogen dissolving into the steel. If there is enough concentration of these hydrogen atoms, the stress will reduce the metals threshold and cracks may begin to spread.

Hydrogen bake-out is achieved by elevating the material temperature to allow the hydrogen to diffuse out of the metal. This process is commonly attempted with open flame, which can be quite inconsistent and unsafe. One of the biggest issues with flame, especially when utilized in more northern climates, is that its biggest by-product is water vapour. This vapour can contribute greatly to the hydrogen build-up in the steel itself, making it a somewhat futile effort. With the Proheat induction method, there is no flame. The metal is uniformly heated from the outside to the specific, predetermined temperature and held there for as long as required.

3. Coating Removal

 

Occasionally, steel pipes and metal structures need to have their outer protective coatings removed. This is commonly done to allow for servicing, repairs, and maintenance of the metal beneath.

Though traditionally achieved with the use of a torch, or blasting with sand or walnuts, these processes tend to be hazardous, time-consuming, and make for difficult cleanup.

Induction generates heat within the coated metal, not to the coating itself, this allows for quick debonding of the coating from the steel substrate up to 90 percent faster than alternative methods. This process can remove coatings such as epoxies, urethanes, lead paint, fire-retardant coatings as well as glued, vulcanized, and chlorinated rubbers. Rather than being pulverized, the coating peels easily off, allowing for easy clean-up of debris.

4. Shrink fit Application or Removal by expansion

 

Thermal expansion is the tendency of matter to alter its shape, volume, and density in response to a change in temperature. This principle is put into practice to expand and shrink metal objects to create a fastening between two tight-fitting parts, also known as an interference fit.

Some alternatives rely on force to achieve a tight fit, however, by applying heat, the housing can expand just enough to allow for easy removal or insertion of the part with minimal force. Infrared heat and torches are commonly used to achieve this result, though these can affect the surrounding material and workspace. Induction heat is localized only to the part to be altered, making the work environment safer and more comfortable.

Click here to learn more about induction heating.

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Okay, let’s be real for a second... When your welder stops working — it’s not just annoying, it’s stressful. You’ve got jobs to do, deadlines to meet, and now the machine you rely on is giving you grief. We’ve all been there. And that’s why I’m writing this — because...

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Ask the Crane Tech: 10 Ways to Prolong the Life of Your Crane

Ask the Crane Tech: 10 Ways to Prolong the Life of Your Crane

Have you ever wondered why you have so many problems with your crane? After over a decade servicing cranes, I’ve seen it all. Frequent crane issues can be caused by age, use (or perhaps abuse) of the crane, and even environmental factors. Establishing good practices with your overhead crane goes a long way; allowing you to increase your production by reducing downtime, service call volume, and repair bills.

Perhaps the best thing you can do for your cranes is to have your operators successfully complete a certified Crane Operator Training course. Crane Operator Training provides your operators more knowledge about the crane and an increased awareness while running your equipment. A proper crane operator training course serves to educate and correct some of the poor practices of novice operators; reducing incidents that could damage the crane and actions that accelerate component wear.

It may be easy to gloss over the importance of taking a few minutes to complete a pre-use check on the crane at the beginning of a shift or before the first use of the crane on each shift. Numerous issues can be caught on a pre-use inspection and dealt with immediately before they become problems. Completing a pre-use check may allow you to catch a malfunction in the crane before it breaks down with a load stuck in the air. An issue picked up on a pre-use inspection could be a quick, inexpensive repair now, before it becomes a lengthy and expensive repair after your valuable load falls to the floor.

Regular maintenance on your crane keeps your equipment in good condition for long, reliable production. Replacing oil before it gets too old, dirty, or contaminated will help reduce damage to the gearboxes. Periodic cleaning and adjustment of the brakes will prevent breakdowns due to drifting loads and motors running through the brakes causing them to wear out very quickly. Properly scheduled inspections can catch component wear or damage that can be repaired during an opportune window before it becomes a larger problem impeding your production schedule.

 
 

Now seems as good a time as any to get into the do-nots.

Side loading causes the wire rope or load chain to rub along the guide, causing wear and damage. It will result in replacing parts much quicker, accelerated wear on the wire rope or load chain, or even outright damage to the wire rope in the form of kinks or broken wires. Side-loading can also dislodge the trolley, allowing unexpected motion or even a swinging load.

Dragging a load with your crane will damage and/or prematurely wear your equipment. Dragging loads with your crane causes the same problems as side-loading along with the possibility of dislodging the hoist and trolley right off the bridge and down to the floor.

Over my career, I have seen many, many operators just mash a function button all the way down, jogging the crane with frequent short bursts of motion in high speed. As AC motors get a very large burst of current when they initially start, jogging causes a large amount of these bursts in a short period of time, generating large amounts of heat in the motor. Excessive use of this technique can cause not only motor damage – resulting in lengthy downtime and expensive repairs – but can even trip the motors thermal overload protection; stopping the crane completely and generating a service call

So what is the proper technique? When you approach the target in high speed, then switch to low speed when near the target (unless the equipment is single speed of course). Once you are very close to the target, jog the crane in LOW speed if necessary, to complete your task.

Whether your hoist is on a push/pull system or a jib crane, pulling your hoist by the pendant will inevitably result in the pendant drop cable pulling out of either the pendant or the hoist. Always get in the practice of pulling your hoist around by the hook or the load. You can also attach a tag line to the hoist or to the end of the jib beam and use that to move the equipment.

All operators should pay attention when they are moving the cranes around; not just at eye level, but above as well. Watch for the equipment nearing its end of travel — reaching this point stops the trolley or the bridge but it does not stop the wheels. The wheels will just keep spinning, wearing the treads and rubbing divots into the rails. Eventually, these divots will need to be filled because when they get deep enough the wheels will not be able to get out of them. Suddenly stopping an overhead crane when reaching end of travel at speed can also impart significant swing to the load; never a desirable outcome.

Your crane’s service life will also improve if you ensure your operators know the specifics of the equipment they are using and monitoring.

Hoist Specifics Example

Say your chain hoist does not have a lower limit switch, but your daily pre-use inspection requests a “Lower Limit” check. Checking the lower limit repeatedly in this circumstance will cause the hoist to run through the load limit clutch. Over time, the clutch will wear and the hoist capacity will be reduced.

Crane Specifics Example

Do your cranes have an anti-collision system installed? If not, you should ensure your operators pay greater attention while approaching other cranes. Two cranes colliding in high speed may result in damage to the structure and/or electrical components.

Building Specifics Example

Are your operators aware of the location of the heaters in the building? Parking the crane under a heater for a significant amount of time could melt the electrical cables, cook the gearbox oil, or even damage the motors.

The great outdoors is always rough on overhead cranes. Rain causes rust which can weaken the structure over time. Water can get into the gearboxes and contaminate the oil. Wet brakes can seize up when they dry. Many of the issues caused by rain can be prevented by covering the brakes and gearboxes on cranes that go outside.

Cold weather, especially here in Canada, can freeze the oil and cause it to gum up and stop coating the gears. Heaters can be installed on the gearboxes to maintain the oil’s viscosity.

 

Extreme cold can also cause frost to build up on the power conductors. Frost can then build up between the conductors and the contact shoes, isolating the crane from power. If this is a frequent issue you see, investing in special wire-brush contact shoes (self-cleaning contact shoes) will clean off the conductors to prevent the buildup of frost and other elements.

 

Exposure to the elements can also dry off the lubrication on the wire rope and drum, resulting in chattering or even damage to the rope guide. If your crane spends a great deal of time outside, I recommend more frequent applications of grease and oil.

 

But when it comes to protecting your crane from the weather, I recommend doing whatever possible to keep your crane inside. If parking your crane inside overnight is not an option, even covering your crane at night will go a long way towards preventing many weather-related issues.

 
Throughout this article, I’ve highlighted several things you can do to get more life out of your cranes. Some are simple solutions that can be easily and cheaply implemented; some are things that will cost you a little money now but will undoubtedly save you a lot of money later. Putting these strategies to work for you will give you a more reliable crane that lasts longer, improving production and reducing downtime. After all, that’s what we all want, isn’t it?
 

The Crane Tech

 

Welding Machine Acting Up? Let’s Fix It.

Okay, let’s be real for a second... When your welder stops working — it’s not just annoying, it’s stressful. You’ve got jobs to do, deadlines to meet, and now the machine you rely on is giving you grief. We’ve all been there. And that’s why I’m writing this — because...

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Back in Fashion – An Old Jersey Gets Another Swing At The Bat

Back in Fashion – An Old Jersey Gets Another Swing At The Bat

In the spring of 1985, Kristian Electric employees, family, and friends joined the Calgary Riverside Modified Baseball League. Kris Gjertsen, then company President, and his wife Bertha sponsored the team, provided the uniforms, and cheered on the team throughout the regular season.

The KEL Team entered the 1985 season in the ‘B’ Division, proving themselves competitive right from the start! By the 1986 season, the KEL Team won their division and moved up to compete in the ‘A’ division for the 1987 season.

After wrapping up the 1987 season, the KEL Team went on a road trip to Mexico to compete in Cabo San Lucas on the southern tip of the Baha. Under the hot Cabo sun, they were ready to show their skills competing in a week-long slow-pitch tournament! But by the first game, the KEL Team quickly realized that Mexican slow-pitch was played a bit differently than its Canadian counterpart… Nevertheless, the team made it to the semi-finals before being defeated and sent back to the beaches and bars where they were truly at their best.

Since the retirement of the KEL Team not long after their Mexican adventure… tales of the team have become stories of yore, remembered by all. Every once and a while, a former member might proudly wear one of the original baseball shirts… to the envy of everyone else! The shirts, like the photographs we keep proudly displayed, remained as souvenirs of a simpler time… when KEL employees, family, and friends could really step up to the plate for each other.

Fast forward thirty-two years to 2019… as Kristian Electric prepared to celebrate our 55th anniversary.

Celebrating 55 years in business is no small feat. We knew that we had to do something significant to mark the occasion… so we brought back the old baseball jerseys to celebrate! The shirts were updated with the current Kristian logo and emblazoned with the number ‘55’ on the back in celebration of the company anniversary.

The re-designed shirts not only paid homage to the original KEL Team, but renewed the fact that all employees, family, and friends are part of a new KEL Team. (And you don’t need to be able to swing a bat this time!) What better way to show off the company team spirit than with a team inspired shirt?

Since the release of the KEL baseball shirts, it’s hard to find any Kristian employee who isn’t proud to show off their team colors!

Welding Machine Acting Up? Let’s Fix It.

Okay, let’s be real for a second... When your welder stops working — it’s not just annoying, it’s stressful. You’ve got jobs to do, deadlines to meet, and now the machine you rely on is giving you grief. We’ve all been there. And that’s why I’m writing this — because...

Miller Build with Blue Summer Rebate – Save Big This Summer!

Summer just got hotter. Miller’s Build with Blue rebate promotion is back at Kristian Electric — and this round brings fresh savings on some of the most popular machines for Canadian welders. From July 1 to September 30, you can save up to $700 on eligible Miller...

The Miller Venture 150 S Battery Powered Welder

Welding Without Cords? Now You Can. The future of off-grid welding is here — and it’s powerful. Meet the Miller Venture 150 S — a fully battery-powered stick and TIG welder that delivers serious performance without a single cord, generator, or compromise. This...