Tela GmbH is one of Switzerland’s leading paper manufacturers. At its site in Niederbipp, the company produces high-quality hygiene papers such as toilet paper and facial tissues – everyday essentials found in almost every Swiss household. As a long-established company with strong regional roots, Tela GmbH stands for ‘Made in Switzerland’ quality and has consistently pursued a sustainable corporate policy for decades. This includes, amongst other things, the processing and reuse of waste paper as well as the company’s own wastewater treatment. At the same time, the company continuously invests in modern production facilities, enabling a new tissue paper production line to be commissioned recently. An overhead travelling crane is used to load this production machine. It transports the paper rolls, weighing approximately 2 to 2.5 tonnes, to the unwinding unit and subsequently removes the empty drums.

Overhead crane as a freestanding system

The overhead crane used for this purpose was supplied and installed by the Swiss electric chain hoist and crane manufacturer GIS. Two GPOD1000 chain hoists run along the 19-metre-long crane girder, providing a lifting capacity of 2 x 1.6 tonnes. A custom-made load beam is used to transport the paper rolls, which is attached to the load hooks of the two hoists operating in tandem. For day-to-day operations, the crane girder only moves within a small section of the crane runway, but for maintenance work on the production line, the full 33-metre length is utilised. The GIS crane system is designed as a freestanding system with a total of ten supports. This design with a support structure has the major advantage that Tela GmbH was able to freely choose the crane’s location and area of operation, thereby adapting it to the production environment.

Maximum safety for the transport of paper rolls

All travel and hoisting movements of the overhead crane are electrically driven, with frequency-controlled drives ensuring precise and smooth handling of the load. Operation is via radio control, which allows the two electric chain hoists to be controlled individually or together. By default, tandem mode is activated when the crane system is switched on. This ensures that both hoists operate in synchronisation, guaranteeing the safe transport of the long paper rolls. The crane control system continuously monitors the operating status of both chain hoists using the integrated electronic position measurement. A fault or stop in one hoist, for example when reaching the end position, triggers an automatic response in the other. This prevents a dangerous situation arising due to the load being lifted or lowered on one side only.

Additional safety features assist the crane operator. For example, the crane’s higher travel speed can only be activated when both load hooks are in the uppermost position – in other words, when the paper roll has been fully raised. Limit switches for the horizontal crane and trolley movements also ensure that, as the crane approaches its end positions, it automatically switches from main speed to creep speed and then comes to a halt.

An efficient solution for smooth operation

The GIS crane system that has been installed helps to ensure a smooth and efficient production process. Given that the rolls are changed regularly every one to two hours, it guarantees the reliable and safe handling of the rolls whilst production is underway.