20 Ton Grab Bridge Cranes for Pig Iron Handling in Bahrain

2026-04-29 14:35:38

The customer, who bought the crane from an industrial zone in Bahrain, is a company specializing in scrap recycling, pig iron trading and steel raw material processing. Our customers mainly supply high purity pig iron lumps and scrap to steel mills and also export to neighboring countries such as Saudi Arabia and UAE on the side. The customer's previous crane not only had broken grab teeth, but also had frequent mechanical failures due to long-term use. Loss of production interruption due to crane downtime is an expensive loss for them. So they wanted to choose a rugged and reliable device that would last for a long time.

Core Challenges in Pig Iron Handling

After in-depth communication with the customer and on-site video survey, we summarized the five major challenges facing the birth iron handling operation:

Challenge	Specific description	Impact on equipment
Highly abrasive material	Blocks of pig iron with sharp edges and cast with burrs and cast sand on the surface after casting	Extremely fast wear of the edges and base plates of ordinary grapple flaps
High density, high impact load	The density of pig iron is more than 1.5 times that of ordinary scrap steel, and the impact force is huge when the grapple is closed	Causing deformation of the grab structure, cylinder seal damage, and even overloading of the crane's hoisting mechanism
Dust and Corrosion	There is a large amount of iron oxide and fine particle dust in the pig iron yard, and the air in the bay area has high salinity.	Dust entering the grapple hinges and hydraulics can cause stalling; salt spray accelerates metal corrosion.
High operational continuity requirements	Customers need to load or stack trucks continuously every day, which does not allow long downtime due to equipment failure.	The grapple is required to be highly reliable and easy to maintain.

Our customized solutions

Based on the above challenges, we custom designed a 5m3 heavy-duty orange peel grab with a 20 ton grab bridge crane (the customer's original plant track could be utilized, so only the crane + grab had to be purchased, and the large vehicle running mechanism was adapted to the existing track).

1. Improvements to the core design of the grapple

In order to solve the problems with grab cranes previously mentioned by our customers, especially the frequent damage and reduced reliability of the grab teeth, we focused on improving the core structure of the grab.

a. Thickened wear layer

We reinforced the inside of the grapple flaps and the cutting edges with a thick layer of high-hardness, wear-resistant welding material to better handle constant friction and impact during operation. This added protection helps extend the service life of the grab and reduces the risk of structural damage. In addition, we have equipped the grapple with replaceable bolt-on wear teeth.

b. Anti-snag hinge design

All hinge points adopt self-lubricating bushings and are equipped with dust covers to avoid iron chips from entering and causing rotation failure. We also added protective dust covers to each hinge to prevent iron chips and debris from entering the joints. This is important in pig iron handling, where small metal fragments can easily cause blockage or wear. With this design, the grapple maintains smooth rotation, reduces the chance of mechanical failure, and ensures stable performance during continuous operation.

2. Crane main technical parameters

Projects	Parameters
Crane Model	QZ 20t - 18m - A6
Rated lifting capacity	20 tons
Span	18 meters
Lifting height	10 meters
Job level	A6 (heavy grade, suitable for continuous gripping operations)
Grab Type	Hydraulic orange peel grab, 5 cubic meter capacity
Number of grapple flaps	5 flaps (fully closed type to prevent leakage of small particles)
Grab material	Imported high-strength wear-resistant steel (cutting edge and base plate)
Control mode	Cab Operated + Wireless Remote Control (for fine work at close range)

grab-overhead-crane Grab Overhead Crane

Lifting Capacity	5-25 ton
Crane Span	10.5~34.5m
Lifting Height	1-50 m
Working Class	A5–A7
Control Mode	Pendant Control, Remote control
Hoist	Wire Rope Hoist, chain hoist

Customer Feedback

We offer Grab Bridge Cranes that change the way our clients move pig iron. They stated that this grab bridge crane has a very high gripping force and can grab a large amount of pig iron in one go, and once grabbed there is almost no spillage.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about this product

Q1: What is the difference between an orange peel grab and a regular shell grab (Clamshell)? Which one should I choose.

➢Orange Peel Grabber usually has 3 to 6 jaw flaps, which are in the shape of orange flaps when closed, and is suitable for gripping irregular, easily rolled or mutual biting lumpy materials (e.g., pig iron lumps, scrap steel, castings, large stones). It has the advantage that the gripping force is evenly distributed and is less likely to spill.
➢Shell Grabber has only two jaw flaps, which is suitable for grabbing relatively uniform bulk materials (e.g. coal, ore, sand and gravel). If it is used to grab pig iron, it is easy to leak material from both sides and individual jaws are easily deformed by too much force.

Q2: Can your grabs be adapted to my existing overhead cranes.

Can. We support grapples sold separately. All you need to do is provide us with the lifting capacity of your existing crane, the height of lift, the number of ropes in the reel (single/double), and the hydraulic or electric interface requirements, and we can customize a matching grab for you.

Q3: Cranes need to operate for a long time in a dusty environment, what kind of protection do you do.

➢All motors, gearboxes, and limit switches are IP65 or higher protection level.
➢The cab is sealed with positive pressure seal (air-conditioning recirculation filtration), which prevents dust from entering.
➢Electrical cabinets are centrally mounted on end beams away from dusty areas and are equipped with dust filters.
➢The key hinge points (pulley block, grapple hinge shaft) adopt double-sealed self-lubricating bearings to reduce dust intrusion.

Q4: Can you provide on-site installation service to Bahrain or other Gulf countries.

Can. We have rich overseas installation experience and can send engineers to the site to guide the installation and debugging according to customers' needs. We also provide detailed installation manuals and 24/7 remote technical support, which customers can choose according to their budget.

Q5: If I only need the grab and not the whole crane, can I also enjoy the wear-resistant steel material and customized design.

Certainly. Grapples can be sold separately and also support material upgrades, size customization and hydraulic/electric options. A large number of customers in the Middle East and Africa use their own existing cranes + special grabs provided by us to complete the handling of special materials such as pig iron, scrap steel, aluminum slag and so on.