Building Quality: Ensuring the Safety and Productivity of Your Operation

Ensuring that every customer’s crane and hoist solution over-delivers on operational safety, productivity, and longevity is the foundation of American Crane’s mission. In fact, the very first pillar of our mission statement is: “We are passionate about delighting our customers. Our mission is to make their lives easier. We do what we commit to do, do it well and do it on-schedule.”

A massive part of that commitment is our dedication to the core value, “Build Quality.” As explained in our values: “What we do, we do well. We strive to provide excellence and value in our products & services.” Every member of our team recognizes that if our products aren’t manufactured to the highest quality standards, the safety and integrity of each customer’s operation is jeopardized.

How We Build Quality into Every Crane We Make

At American Crane, we’ve taken a number of steps to ensure our people, processes, technologies, and equipment meet or exceed the most stringent industry standards and certifications. These include:

Training and Certifications. All of our manufacturing personnel, including machinists, welders, fabricators, and assemblers, are trained and re-trained annually (or more often). Continuous education, sourced internally and through certified third-party instructors, hones and improves their skills while meeting our highest quality standards. Additionally, many members of our welding team are certified by American Crane to both American and Canadian welding standards:

• American Crane’s welders are certified to meet both the American Welding Society (AWS) D1.1 Standard for the Structural Welding of Steel, and the AWS D14.1 Specification for Welding of Industrial and Mill Cranes and Other Material Handling Equipment qualification requirements. A Certified Welding Inspector (CWI) is also on staff, and we adhere to all welding procedures control as specified by AWS.
• American Crane employs a Certified Welding Inspector and several welders who meet the qualifications of the Canadian Welding Bureau (CWB) Certification and the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) W47.1 Standard for the Fusion Welding of Steel. Additionally, all of American Crane’s welding procedures performed by these qualified personnel are certified by both CWI and CSA.

Manufacturing Capabilities. American Crane’s products have always been proudly Built in the USA, primarily to guarantee that each overhead handling solution we manufacturer is over the highest quality. We continuously invest in our own manufacturing capabilities, including state-of-the-art technologies such as:

• A computer numerical control (CNC) machine shop.
• In-house electrical panel shop, including the ability to manufacture UL508 certified control panels.

Engineering Capabilities. No two crane and hoist applications or solutions are ever the same. To ensure that every unique overhead lifting system we manufacture exceeds our customers’ expectations, American Crane’s in-house engineering department is equipped with a broad range of design, modeling, and analysis capabilities, including:

• AutoCad, MathCad, Solidworks, SAP2000, and ANSYS software.
• Design of machinery and machine components, mechanical systems, control systems, automated systems, and software.
• Design, analysis and seismic qualification of structures, failure modes and effects, and more.
• Engineering studies of existing equipment, specification review and development, and conceptual development for unique applications
• “Smart” crane systems that provide enhanced protection and maintenance data.

Inspection and Testing Capabilities. To verify the safety and integrity of our products before delivery and installation at a customer location, American Crane’s in-house quality assurance group performs a variety of inspections and testing procedures. These include:

• American Welding Society (AWS) certified weld inspections.
• Non-destructive testing (NDT) is certified to SNT-TC-1a standards.
• American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) NOG-1 inspection and testing.
• Load testing in accordance with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Overhead and Gantry Cranes regulations, section 1910.179 for hoisting and lowering, bridge and trolley travel, limit switches, locking capabilities and functionality of safety devices, as well as rated load tests up to 200 tons to establish pre-service load carrying capacity.

Quality Assurance Verifications. American Crane offers several graded quality assurance programs to match each customer’s specific requirements, including those of the Department of Energy, Department of Defense, and the nuclear industry. These include:

• Standard Quality Program (SQP-96) is utilized for standard commercial cranes and other material handling equipment and is implemented in accordance with controls identified in the SQP-96 Standard Quality Manual.
• Augmented Quality Program (ASQP-96) is offered to customers who require additional quality controls than committed to in SQP-96. American Crane provides a cost-effective way to obtain these additional controls without invoking its highest level QAM-96 Quality Assurance Manual (described below). For augmented quality controls, SQP-96 is used to provide baseline commitments. Additional controls required by the customer’s contract will be achieved by invoking additional, applicable procedures (APs). Any APs to be invoked are jointly determined by the VP, Quality & Performance Improvement and the Project Manager and documented in a Fabrication, Inspection, and Test Plan. Where required by contract, the combination of implementing SQP-96 with the appropriate AP procedures the intent of ISO 9001 can be met.
• Nuclear Quality Assurance Program (QAM-96) is available for contracts requiring a comprehensive, documented quality assurance program. QAM-96 was developed to meet the quality assurance program requirements of 10CRFR50, Appendix B; ASME- NQA-1; and ANSI N45.2. Because this program is intended when safety related cranes or material handling equipment is being procured for nuclear related applications, this program is typically not economical for non-nuclear contracts because of additional required activities and associated costs.

At American Crane, GRIT Equals Quality

The American Crane commitment to Build Quality in every product we make is fully embraced by our entire team, notes the members of our quality assurance team. They include Lester Dice, Broc Emery, and Mike Lamparella.

“Build Quality, for me, means the effort that we all put in at American Crane. The final result really pays dividends,” says Dice. “We do what we say we’re going to do and live up to the expectations of the company and of our customers.”

Emery adds, “Build Quality also means craftsmanship, and caring about what you do. I believe it’s vital to our customers to show that we care about what we’re building and that we produce good work.”

“By following our Build Quality systems, we make American Crane one of the top crane manufacturers in the country,” explains Lamparella, who notes that customers frequently comment on how impressed they are with the final quality of their crane, particularly those with the most challenging and complex requirements.

Safety. Productivity. Longevity. Because we only Build Quality at American Crane, our customers can be assured that every custom overhead crane solution we manufacture will check each of those boxes. It’s just one of the many components of our mantra: GRIT Matters. To learn more about how we put Perseverance, Heart, and InteGRITy into our high-quality products, contact us.