Energy and economic features of gantry crane at log storage

Log handling and transportation do not increase the quality and value of sawmill products. How-ever, they participate considerably in the expenses of sawmill processing. Gantry cranes are the most frequently used means of transport for log handling at sawmill storages. The aim of this article was to establish some energy and economic features of the gantry crane with carrying capacity 10 t, operating at the log storage of Lucice sawmill. The investigation covered the consumption of active and reactive electric energy (monthly, daily, shiftly and per unit of handled mate-rial), utilization of installed electric motors, electric power of individual gantry crane mechanisms depending on the transported load mass and driving speed, and costs of a gantry crane working hour. It has been established that the energy consumption of gantry crane participates with only 3,8 % in the total sawmill consumption of electric energy. The energy costs also account for a small part of the costs of a gantry crane working hour. It has been evidenced that the crane operator can influence energy consump-tion. It has been established that the utilization of the installed power is 0.25 and only the electrical power of the lifting mechanism depends on the transported load mass. It is indicated that better work organisation with a larger gantry crane output can decrease energy consumption and costs per working hour.