Guides
Decision-making and comparison guides.
Long-form pieces from the eme engineering team — how to choose, compare, and specify aluminum lifting equipment.
- Rigging an A-Frame Mobile Gantry Crane: Safety, Setup, and Best Practices A practical guide to rigging an A-frame mobile aluminum gantry crane safely — pre-use inspection, ground conditions, sling angles, center of gravity, shock loading, and the standards your equipment should reference. →
- Aluminum vs. Steel Gantry Cranes: What to Know Before You Choose Aluminum gantry cranes weigh far less than steel at equivalent capacity, deploy without a crane truck, and resist corrosion. Steel has higher capacity ceilings. Here's how to choose. →
- Understanding ASME and OSHA Lifting Standards: A Buyer's Guide ASME B30, ASME BTH-1, and OSHA all govern lifting equipment — but they do different jobs, and not every standard applies to every product. Here is how the framework fits together for gantry cranes, davit cranes, and lifting beams. →
- Should You Buy or Rent a Portable Gantry Crane? Rent when the need is short, one-off, or still undefined. Buy when the crane earns its keep on the calendar — or has to be on hand for unplanned work. A decision framework for portable aluminum gantry cranes. →
- Choosing the Right Capacity for Your Lift How to pick the right gantry crane capacity — rated load vs. actual lift weight, rigging overhead, safety margin, and capacity-by-application for 1-ton through 10-ton portable aluminum gantries. →
- Gantry Cranes for Data Center Infrastructure Data halls have no overhead crane steel, raised floors with hard point-load limits, and no tolerance for downtime. How portable aluminum gantry cranes lift UPS batteries, cooling units, piping, and switchgear in a live facility. →
- Gantry Crane vs. Overhead Bridge Crane: Cost, Flexibility, and When to Use Each A bridge crane hangs from your building; a gantry crane brings its own legs to the floor. One is a permanent installation, the other goes where the work is. How to choose — and the total cost each really carries. →
- Gantry Crane vs. Davit Crane: When to Use Each A gantry crane uses a two-leg A-frame supporting a travelling hoist; a davit crane uses a single mast or arm mounted to a base socket. Each wins in different applications. Here's how to choose. →
- How to Choose a Portable Gantry Crane: A Buyer's Guide A practical buyer's guide to choosing a portable gantry crane — capacity, setup method, mobility, certifications, material choice, and how to separate real manufacturers from the pro-sumer tier. →
- North American vs. European Lifting Equipment Standards: What Buyers Should Know North American lifting equipment standards (ASME, OSHA, CSA) and European standards (EN, CE, LOLER) are not interchangeable. A crane designed to one set may not satisfy the other. Here's what that means for buyers. →
- Moving Loads With a Rolling Gantry Crane: How Loaded Travel Actually Works A rolling gantry crane picks the load once, rolls it to where it needs to be, and sets it down — no re-rigging, no second lift. How loaded travel works, what it requires, and when not to do it. →
- Types of Gantry Cranes: Fixed, Adjustable, Portable — and What Each Is For Gantry cranes are classified by mobility, height adjustability, girder count, and material. A plain-language guide to the types — full and semi, fixed and adjustable, steel and aluminum — and which fits which work. →
- Wastewater Pump Lifting: Portable Cranes for Submersible Pump Pulls Submersible pumps have to come up for service — out of a wet well, through a floor hatch, onto a truck. How portable aluminum gantry and davit cranes handle pump pulls at treatment plants and lift stations, and how to plan one. →