How to choose suppliers of rail mounted gantry crane
Rail mounted gantry cranes, also known as RMG cranes in the industry, are large-scale lifting equipment with high utilization rate in container yards, railroad freight stations and multimodal logistics parks. This type of equipment is fixed for a long time in the rail operation, bear the container stacking, field transfer, cargo grouping and other core operational tasks.Many station builders and logistics project managers in the procurement stage, will only focus on the basic parameters of the equipment, easy to ignore the overall strength of the supplier.
Selection of reliable rail gantry crane supplier, not only to protect the quality of the equipment itself, but also directly affect the project construction progress, on-site operational safety, as well as equipment put into use after more than ten years of routine maintenance expenses.
Combined with years of docking overseas yards, inland railroad hub project hands-on experience, we from the technical level and business level, organized a complete supplier screening ideas, to facilitate the various types of overseas procurement customers to quickly make a suitable choice of cooperation.
Basic introduction of rail type gantry crane
Rail type gantry crane rely on the ground to complete the overall walking operation of the fixed track, different from the tire type gantry crane, it is walking on a fixed route, structural stability is stronger, more suitable for large standardized container stacking and centralized cargo scheduling work.
This kind of equipment application scene is very clear, the mainstream concentrated in the coastal container terminal yard, inland railroad freight hub, large-scale integrated logistics intermodal transportation park, and the gradual popularization of fully automated container warehousing area.
And ordinary workshop Overhead Crane is different, RMG rail gantry crane belongs to large-scale complete lifting system, the overall structure of the volume is huge, structural design, traveling matching, electronic control linkage, site foundation adaptive have extremely stringent standards. This is why in this kind of large-scale equipment procurement, the supplier's comprehensive strength, will be more important than ordinary lifting equipment procurement.
The core role of the right rail type gantry crane suppliers
Equipment stability directly determines the efficiency of yard operations
Yard daily cargo flow rhythm is compact, once the rail gantry crane failure downtime, will directly cause container accumulation, cargo transit stagnation, significantly reducing the entire yard cargo throughput capacity.
Solid workmanship, reasonable design of the RMG Crane, the failure rate is lower, can continue to smoothly complete the daily stacking and transshipment work, to maintain the normal rhythm of operation of the yard.
The level of engineering design affects the long-term use of equipment
A qualified rail gantry crane needs to accurately do the overall structural stress design, wheel pressure numerical calculation, anti-rocking operation debugging, and at the same time, it also needs to be perfectly matched with the track laid on site.
Weak design background of the supplier, it is difficult to take into account these details, the equipment is put into use after walking easily, offset, stacking inaccurate and other types of problems, long-term use of the experience is greatly reduced.
Supplier’s comprehensive strength determines the overall pace of the project
From the confirmation of construction drawings, machine production and processing, to shipping, on-site installation and docking, machine commissioning, the whole process has many links.
Insufficient strength of the partner, often lagging behind in the revision of drawings, production scheduling delays, shipment arrangements, such as confusion, directly disrupting the construction of the station and the original schedule for the commissioning of the equipment.
Supporting service ability to control the full cycle of the use of cost
Rail gantry crane service life is generally very long, the later parts replacement, troubleshooting, daily maintenance are inseparable from the manufacturer's support.
Have perfect service system supplier, can quickly respond to all kinds of problems, also can plan in advance the supply channels of common wearing parts, effectively reduce the equipment idle time, control the overall operation and maintenance expenses.
Define the actual needs of their own projects
Determine the actual use of equipment
First divide the main direction of operation of the equipment, whether it is purely for high-level container stacking, or taking into account the railroad car cargo loading and unloading, or to undertake the work of cargo transit between multiple sites.
At the same time, we also need to determine in advance the planning mode of the field, is the traditional manual operation of the field, or is planning to build semi-automatic, fully automated intelligent operation of the field, the use of different equipment configuration varies greatly.
Sort out the core technical parameters
Before procurement, sort out the basic use of data, including equipment rated lifting capacity, the overall span, effective lifting height, the number of container stacking layer, the equipment outreach cantilever length, and the actual walking distance of large and small vehicles and equipment working level.
In addition, the equipment no-load walking speed, full-load operating speed of such operating parameters, but also with the frequency of daily operations in advance to determine down.
Finalize the equipment operation mode
Currently on the market rail gantry crane control mode is clearly divided into on-site manual cab operation, wireless remote control operation, as well as the industry's mainstream semi-automatic operation mode and automatic unmanned operation mode.
Combined with the field staffing, operation automation planning to select the control mode, to avoid the later configuration of redundant functions resulting in cost waste, or lack of functionality can not meet the operational requirements.
Find out the site and environmental conditions
Outdoor yards are exposed to natural weather all year round, so it is necessary to calculate in advance the maximum annual wind level, the range of temperature difference in four seasons, as well as the degree of humidity and corrosion of the air at the site.
At the same time to confirm the site track foundation construction standards, local power supply system and power supply conditions, these site conditions, are suppliers to do the program design must be based on reference.

Distinguish between the supplier is the entity manufacturer or foreign trade intermediary
Distinguish the practical significance of the two
Self-produced rail gantry crane manufacturers, the whole process of controlling the design of equipment drawings, steel selection, processing and welding, the whole assembly process, in product quality control, production schedule adjustment, non-standard program modification has the absolute right to take the initiative.
The simple foreign trade trading company has no independent production workshop, equipment all rely on external factories OEM, it is difficult to adjust the depth of the structure of the equipment and the core configuration, the quality of the problem when the coordination process is more cumbersome.
Practical verification methods
Purchasers can take the initiative to ask for real photos of the enterprise factory, video of the production workshop, details of large-scale steel processing equipment, and check the enterprise's formal registration qualifications, export trade records over the years, as well as information on similar overseas landfill projects that have been completed.
Regular entity manufacturers can cooperate with customers to complete online video factory inspection, or offline field factory inspection.
Scenarios that trading companies can cooperate with
If the procurement of standardized configuration, no special customization requirements of the conventional rail gantry crane, part of the long-term fixed cooperation with high-quality factories, project coordination capabilities of mature foreign trade companies, can also be included in the alternative range.
This kind of business in the document processing, international logistics on the connection of sufficient experience, can simplify the customer's docking process.
Evaluation of supplier engineering design and customization capabilities
Fit the layout of the yard to do exclusive program design
Professional design team, combined with the overall planning of the customer's yard, container placement arrangement, field track laying spacing, daily cargo flow route to optimize the overall design of the equipment.
Will not directly apply the common drawings for mass production, to maximize the equipment to adapt to the site operation line, to enhance the overall smoothness of operations.
Support diversified customized configuration adjustment
According to the actual needs of customers, we can adjust the cantilever structure of the equipment, add the anti-swing system, precise positioning system, remote equipment status monitoring module, and can also be equipped with energy-saving operation control system.
For automated field projects, it can also complete the docking design of the supporting linkage system to meet the personalized needs of different fields.
Provide a complete set of technical information
Regular manufacturers in the supply stage, can complete the overall arrangement of equipment drawings, site wheel pressure force data, a full set of electrical control schematic diagrams, track foundation construction reference data.
At the same time comes with a full set of information such as equipment installation and use manuals, whole machine factory test documents, etc., which can fully meet the acceptance of overseas projects, record and later maintenance access to use.
Examination of manufacturing strength and quality control system
Large gantry steel processing capacity
Rail gantry crane overall steel structure volume is large, on the cutting accuracy, welding process, the whole assembly calibration have high requirements.
Mature manufacturers have perfect processing line, can guarantee the main beam, gantry, end beams and other core components size accuracy, the overall structure is solid and stable.
Core component selection standard
Focus on confirming the equipment supporting motor, reducer, braking device, PLC control system, traveling wheels, bearing bearings, container special spreader and other core parts selection standards.
High-quality parts can reduce the probability of equipment failure from the root, and also facilitate the later global procurement of replacement parts.
Perfect factory inspection process
The whole inspection process includes sampling inspection of raw materials, non-destructive testing of welds, overall dimensional review, electrical line energization test, no-load test run of the whole machine, and full-load test of the rated load.
Strict factory inspection can check the potential problems of the equipment in advance, and ensure that all the equipment sent to overseas project sites meets the standards.
Outdoor special anti-corrosion and anti-rust treatment
The vast majority of rail gantry cranes are placed in the open yard use for a long time, the coastal area will face salt spray erosion.
Reliable manufacturers will use professional surface rust removal process with multi-layer outdoor special anticorrosive coating, enhance the equipment resistance to wind and rain, corrosion resistance, prolong the equipment outdoor service life.

Verification of similar rail gantry crane landing project experience
The importance of similar project experience
Rail gantry crane and ordinary plant Crane application scenarios are completely different, focusing on yard container operation, track matching operation, no relevant project experience manufacturers, it is difficult to control the site of all kinds of practical use of pain points.
Have enough practical cases of suppliers, familiar with all kinds of yard construction standards and overseas project use habits, can avoid many landing problems in advance.
Ask for project cases with high matching degree
Priority should be given to projects with the same tonnage, similar span, the same stacking height parameters and the same operation scenarios as your own projects, and also refer to the completed project cases in the same export region.
The actual application cases of the same type of scene have a much greater reference value than the general publicity materials.
Verify the real basis of the project
You can ask the supplier to provide the project site pictures, equipment operation video, complete project case introduction, there is a need to understand the actual operation of the equipment use feedback, intuitive judgment of the actual use of the equipment effect.
Evaluation of automation and control system strength
Nowadays, more and more large overseas container yards are popularizing the automation mode, and the maturity of the control system becomes more and more critical.
Suppliers need to accurately match the manual, semi-automatic and fully automatic control systems at three different levels according to the customer's site planning, without blindly piling up high-end features or reducing the necessary configuration.
Such practical functions as automatic precise alignment, intelligent anti-swing, field management system linkage, remote fault self-test, operation data statistics can be flexibly matched according to the needs.
The stability of the entire control system directly determines whether the automated field can run smoothly, and is also an important criterion for distinguishing between ordinary suppliers and professional RMG equipment manufacturers.

Verification of product qualification and export supporting capacity
Enterprise base ISO quality management system certification is the basis for cooperation, for global exports of rail gantry crane, must also have CE, FEM, EAC and other international general lifting equipment certification qualifications.
For some countries and regions, also need to match the local exclusive industry access standards, to ensure that the equipment successfully complete the local project acceptance.
In the export business level, professional manufacturers can provide one-stop packing list, commercial invoice, certificate of origin, factory quality inspection report, compliance certification documents and other complete set of foreign trade documents.
Confirm in advance the ability to issue documents, can effectively avoid the equipment to the port, there are obstacles to customs clearance, project approval delays and other issues.
Reasonable comparison of rail gantry crane procurement offer
Procurement process can not only focus on the final total price to do comparison, the low price offer will often delete the core configuration, replacement of low-end parts, omit supporting services, additional expenditure will increase significantly.
Carefully check all the contents of the offer line by line, confirm whether the offer covers the main steel structure, lifting and operating mechanism, a complete set of electrical systems, special container spreader, rail clamping device, outdoor windproof locking device, emergency anchoring equipment, and basic spare parts.
At the same time to clarify whether it includes on-site commissioning guidance services, to distinguish clearly between the items included in the offer and additional payment items.
In addition to the unified verification of the core components in the offer of the brand and specific models, the configuration of different grades, equipment experience and service life gap is very obvious.
Finally, both sides clearly finalize the terms of EXW, FOB, CIF and other types of foreign trade transactions, and clearly delineate the responsibilities and costs of logistics, customs clearance and transportation.
Evaluation of delivery capability, project coordination and docking communication efficiency
Most of the overseas yard projects have a fixed construction and production period, and the equipment production and delivery cycle must strictly match the project progress.
Stable manufacturers can clearly give the standard production cycle, and complete the production, packing, loading and shipment in strict accordance with the agreed time.
In the whole project docking, the professional team will take the initiative to synchronize the progress of drawing review, manufacturing nodes, factory testing and shipping plans, and take the initiative to coordinate and solve all kinds of problems in the project docking.
Efficient and smooth technical communication can quickly answer all kinds of professional problems such as equipment parameters, site adaptation, program modification, etc., reduce docking deviation and make the whole procurement process smoother.

Evaluation of installation and commissioning and full-cycle after-sales support
For overseas projects that are far away, the manufacturer can provide online remote installation technical guidance, and for large-scale key projects, professional engineers can be arranged to arrive at the site to do installation supervision.
After the equipment assembly is completed, complete no-load debugging, grading load test, the whole machine walking alignment calibration and a full set of debugging work, and at the same time for the site operator to explain the basic operation process and daily maintenance of the basic points of the equipment.
In the cooperation agreement in advance, the length of the machine warranty, warranty coverage, after-sales response time, and the supply channels and supply cycle of commonly used mechanical parts and electrical parts are clearly defined.
In addition, high-quality suppliers can also provide long-term equipment daily maintenance advice, remote troubleshooting, old equipment function upgrading and transformation and other long-term supporting services.
Procurement of rail gantry cranes must be confirmed with the supplier before the question
- Is your company own entity production factory, or simply foreign trade export enterprises? Can you provide the same type of rail gantry crane mature landing project cases?
- Equipment can provide what international industry certification, can meet our project local acceptance standards?
- What equipment configuration and supporting services are included in this offer, which items need to pay extra?
- What brands are used in the core components of the equipment, such as motor, electronic control, traveling mechanism, etc.?
- How long is the overall production and delivery cycle from order confirmation to shipment?
- Can you provide on-site installation guidance, machine commissioning and personnel operation training services?
- How to formulate the equipment warranty policy, overseas parts delivery process and after-sales problem handling is how?
Purchasing rail gantry crane easy to appear common misunderstanding
Only rely on the price to select the cooperation supplier, ignoring the equipment materials, technology and core configuration gap;
Blind pursuit of full automation configuration, detached from the actual operational needs of their own field, resulting in cost waste;
Only look at the parameters of the equipment, ignoring whether the supplier has any experience in the project of RMG equipment for the yard;
Neglecting the site track foundation adaptation, outdoor wind anti-corrosion such site adaptation details;
Not checking the quotation list item by item, and a large number of invisible incremental costs appear later;
In advance did not finalize the after-sales and accessories supply program, equipment problems later no one docking.
Fast screening quality track gantry crane supplier method
The first complete arrangement of the field operation requirements, equipment technical parameters, site environmental conditions and supporting service requirements, organized into a clear list of procurement needs.
Screening out 3 to 5 fully qualified, with sufficient experience in similar projects of the regular suppliers, unified distribution of the list of requirements to collect proposals and quotations.
Priority is given to comparing the professional technical solutions and site adaptation ideas provided by each supplier, rather than simply comparing the price.
On-site or online verification of the manufacturer's production scale, processing strength and past real projects.
Ultimately, combined with the production and delivery speed, export documentation capabilities, full-cycle after-sales service system comprehensive judgment, choose the most cost-effective partner.
Actual Purchasing Reference Cases
A large overseas logistics intermodal yard, plans to purchase rail gantry cranes for daily container stacking and transfer work, for a number of suppliers to solicit procurement proposals and quotations.
One of the suppliers offer low, but the equipment automation configuration ambiguous, can not provide the same size yard landing cases, supporting technical information is not perfect, the later service content is not clearly stated.
Another regular manufacturer, the offer is in the industry's reasonable range, the equipment design program fully adapted to the track layout and operational rhythm of the yard, outdoor corrosion, windproof configuration is complete, with a large number of similar projects in the same area of hands-on experience, while clearly set out the full range of supply and long-term after-sales protection program.
Comprehensive long-term use of cost and stability of the project landing point of view, the yard finally chose the latter cooperation, stable operation after the commissioning of the equipment, fully meet the daily demand for high-intensity operations.
Orbital gantry crane procurement FAQ
What is the difference between a rail gantry crane supplier and an ordinary lifting equipment manufacturer?
Ordinary lifting equipment manufacturers focus on the production of indoor plant lifting equipment, lack of open-air operation of the yard, container specialized equipment design and landing experience. And professional RMG equipment suppliers are deeply engaged in port, logistics yard field, familiar with the harsh outdoor working conditions, rail operation standards and container operation exclusive requirements, program adaptability is stronger.
Procurement of rail gantry crane choose factory or foreign trade company is more appropriate?
Large-scale fully automated rail gantry crane, there are special custom transformation needs of the project, the priority choice of entity manufacturers, customization capabilities and quality control is more guaranteed; conventional standardized model procurement, choose stable resources, mature services, foreign trade companies can simplify the docking process.
How important is the automation function for rail gantry crane?
Traditional manned small and medium-sized yards, the basic operating configuration can meet the use; large-scale intelligent logistics parks, large-scale container hubs, automated control, remote monitoring and other functions can significantly reduce labor costs, improve the overall operating efficiency, belongs to the necessary configuration.
What core information should be requested before placing an order?
The overall design drawings of the equipment, the basic data of the wheel pressure, electrical schematic diagrams, the entire technical parameters of the machine, factory quality inspection reports, product qualification certificates, operation and maintenance manuals and a full set of documents required for export customs clearance.
After-sales supporting services for the rail gantry crane use a big impact?
Rail gantry crane belongs to the core of the yard main equipment, once the downtime will directly affect the overall flow of goods. Perfect after-sales response mechanism and stable parts supply channels, is the key to protect the long-term smooth operation of the yard.
In addition to the procurement price, what other key inspection direction?
Focus on the site to adapt to the design capacity, outdoor anti-corrosion and windproof technology, similar projects landing reputation, delivery schedule control capacity, export documents for the efficiency and long-term maintenance service system.
Summarize
Selection of suitable rail gantry crane suppliers, is never a simple price comparison transaction, but on the manufacturers of engineering design strength, large-scale equipment manufacturing expertise, overseas project experience, quality control standards and long-term service capabilities of the comprehensive consideration.The most cost-effective partner is never the one with the lowest price, but the one that can combine the actual site conditions and operational needs of the project to give the most suitable complete set of solutions, and at the same time, guarantee the on-time delivery of the equipment, stable quality, and worry-free after-sales service of the high-quality manufacturers.Overseas procurement customers in the finalization of cooperation, be sure to equipment configuration standards, acceptance specifications, service rights and responsibilities are clearly confirmed, to avoid all kinds of procurement risks.
Henan Mine Crane as a professional rail gantry crane manufacturer, perennial deep-rooted global port yard, inland railroad logistics park projects, can be customized for different tonnages, different spans, manual / semi-automatic / fully automatic full range of RMG rail gantry crane equipment, with a full set of international export certificates, can provide overseas installation guidance, debugging and training, and long-term supply of spare parts services.
If you have rail gantry crane procurement planning, you can directly provide equipment tonnage, span, stack height data, yard layout drawings and operating mode requirements, we quickly customize for you to fit the site use of professional equipment solutions and transparent offer.