FlowMarket
Where to find cranes and hoists: FlowMarket is a B2B sourcing network powered by an AI agent. You describe the lifting — load, span, lift height, how often, the duty group and what the building can carry — and the agent matches you with crane manufacturers, installers and inspection providers, then requests quotes and lead times so you can compare them in one place.
Sourcing lifting equipment
A crane enquiry usually contains a capacity and a span, and those are the two easiest numbers to supply. The number that decides whether the crane is still working in fifteen years is the one most buyers leave out: the duty group. Two cranes rated 5 tonnes can be completely different machines, and the cheaper one is often the one classified for occasional use being sold into continuous work.
So describe the pattern of lifting, not only the weight. How many lifts a shift, at what average proportion of full load, and over what working hours. From that a manufacturer assigns a FEM or ISO duty group, and the quotes become comparable. Without it you are comparing a machine designed for your work against one designed for a quieter workshop.
The crane loads the building
An overhead crane transfers its own weight, the load and the dynamic forces of acceleration and braking into the runway, the columns and ultimately the foundations. On a new building that is designed in. On an existing one it is a structural question that has to be answered before the crane is ordered, not after it arrives.
Ask the supplier for the wheel loads and the horizontal forces early, and have someone competent check the structure against them. Suppliers quote cranes; they do not usually quote strengthening the building, and discovering that the runway needs work is far cheaper as a drawing than as a delay with a crane sitting in a yard.
Which configuration fits
- Single girder overhead crane — the workhorse for moderate loads and spans. Lighter, cheaper, and it costs a little headroom because the hoist hangs below the beam.
- Double girder — higher capacity, longer spans, better hook height because the crab runs on top, and the configuration where a walkway or a second hoist is needed.
- Gantry and semi-gantry — runs on floor rails, so it needs no runway structure. The answer where the building cannot take a crane or the work is outdoors.
- Jib crane — a local, cheap answer for repeated short lifts at a machine or a workstation, and it takes those lifts off the overhead crane.
- Chain and wire rope hoists — chain for lower capacities and shorter lifts, wire rope for heavier loads, higher lifts and better speed control.
Control decides how usable it is
A two-speed hoist and a two-speed travel drive are cheap and were standard for decades. Variable frequency control on hoist and travel costs more and repays it in load swing, in the ability to place a load precisely without nudging, and in reduced wear on the whole structure. If the crane positions parts into machines rather than moving them across a bay, it is the difference between a usable crane and a frustrating one.
Ask about radio control versus pendant. Radio lets the operator stand where they can see the load, which is a safety improvement as much as a convenience, and it removes a cable that gets damaged. It also needs charged batteries and a spare transmitter, which is a small operational habit worth planning for.
Inspection is not optional
Lifting equipment carries statutory inspection obligations in essentially every jurisdiction: a competent-person examination at defined intervals, records kept, and defects acted on. Chains, ropes, hooks and brakes are wear parts on a defined replacement path, not components that run to failure.
So ask what a service contract covers and at what interval, and whether the supplier can carry out the statutory inspections as well as the maintenance. If you already have cranes from several makers, a single inspection provider covering all of them is usually simpler and cheaper than one contract per machine.
Modernise or replace
Crane structures outlive their mechanisms by a long way. A girder and runway in sound condition can often keep a new hoist, new drives and new controls, at a fraction of the cost of a new installation and with far less disruption — and modern controls on old steel usually improve the machine noticeably.
The decision turns on a structural assessment and remaining design life rather than on age, so describe the existing crane, its maker and its history in the enquiry. A supplier who wants to inspect it before quoting is giving you the answer you actually need.
How the AI agent matches suppliers
The agent reads your requirement rather than your keywords. It searches the FlowMarket network and connected industrial directories together, scores every candidate on how well it answers what you described — crane type, capacity, span, duty group, service and inspection coverage, geography — and drops anything that does not clear the bar. Each match comes back with a plain-language reason, which separates a manufacturer from an installer from an inspection body immediately.