Your crane's data plate says what it was designed for. Its controller knows what it has actually been doing. Crane Tracking reads running hours, load spectrum, overload events and brake use, and shows you the gap.
A crane monitoring system records how a crane is actually used and what condition it reports, and makes that visible without waiting for the next inspection. ABRA Crane Tracking does this from specially programmed PLC systems on the crane, logging operating time, loads, overload events, brake use and faults.
Monitoring
Scope
It is called Crane Tracking, so it is worth being exact about what is being tracked.
The system reads the machine. It does not locate the crane or the load in your building, and it is not a positioning system — there is no indoor positioning, no tags and no map. It does not identify or monitor operators, and it produces no record of who was driving. It does not watch your process or your throughput.
It also does not replace inspection or maintenance. Statutory obligations do not change because a crane is monitored; what changes is that the maintenance visit arrives knowing what the crane has been doing, so the time is spent on what the data points at.
Saying this plainly is deliberate. It is the first question a works council or a security review asks, and the honest answer removes it.
Design life
Every crane and hoist is built to a duty class, and that class is an assumption about two things: how many hours it will run, and how heavy the loads will typically be. Together they define a design life.
Real use almost never matches the assumption. A crane classed for light intermittent duty that ends up running a full shift at close to capacity consumes its design life several times faster than the plate implies — and one bought for heavy duty that turns out to be used lightly has far more life left than its age suggests. Age in years is not the measure. Consumed duty is.
Crane Tracking counts the real hours and the real load spectrum against the class the crane was designed for. That gives you two things the calendar cannot: a warning when the crane is being operated outside its class, which is a different problem from wear, and a view of how much design life is left before a general overhaul becomes the right decision.
That is also the answer to the question that usually arrives as a capex request. Monitoring frequently shows a crane has more life in it than assumed, which moves a replacement out rather than in. The duty class framework itself is explained on the duty class guide.
Data
Three different things get sold under one word, and they carry different weight.
Usage monitoring counts what the crane has done — hours, cycles, loads, overloads, brake operations — and measures it against the design assumption. It is arithmetic, and it is the most reliable of the three.
Condition monitoring measures the physical state of a specific component.
Prediction models the first two into a forecast. It is the weakest of the three and the most oversold.
Crane Tracking is a usage and status system with maintenance planning on top of it. It tells you what the crane has done, what it reported, and what that means for the next service — not a failure date. Where a specific component needs its condition measured, that is an inspection task and it belongs in the maintenance programme rather than in a dashboard.
Applications
Data is collected and recorded continuously and can stay on a closed internal network — inside your plant, on your own infrastructure, with nothing leaving the site. Where you want visibility from elsewhere, secure remote access is available as an option.
That choice matters more than it looks. It means the system can be commissioned without a decision about external connectivity, and that decision can be made later on its own merits, by the people who own it.
Retrofit
Crane Tracking can be fitted to a crane already in service, including one built by another manufacturer — the same brand independence that applies to our service and spare parts.
How much it can read depends on what the crane's control system already provides. On a crane with modern controls, most of the data set comes from the control system itself. On an older crane, some of it has to be instrumented, and some of it may not be worth instrumenting. We look at the existing controls and say which of the eight areas above you would actually get, before anything is quoted — a shorter list honestly stated is worth more than a full one that turns out to be empty.
Technical data
| ABRA Crane Tracking | |
|---|---|
| Records running hours and work cycles | Yes |
| Separates time under load from time running empty | Yes |
| Logs loads lifted and builds a load spectrum | Yes |
| Logs overload events, count and weight | Yes |
| Logs brake operations | Yes |
| Records faults and warning events | Yes |
| Flags operation outside the designed duty class | Yes |
| Supports maintenance planning and remaining service time | Yes |
| Locates the crane or the load in the building | No — this is not a positioning system |
| Identifies or monitors operators | No |
| Monitors your process or throughput | No |
| Replaces statutory inspection or maintenance | No |
| Predicts a failure date | No — it reports consumed duty and service timing |
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Basis | Specially programmed PLC systems on the crane |
| Data collection | Continuous |
| Access | Closed internal network; secure remote access optional |
| Fitted to | ABRA cranes and cranes of other manufacturers |
| Retrofit data scope | Depends on the existing control system — assessed per crane |
| Sensors added | Per crane, where the control system does not already provide the data |
| Alerting | Per project |
| Commercial model | Per project |
| Data retention and export | Per project |
| Reporting cadence | Per project |
FAQ
No. It reads the machine, not positions: running hours, cycles, loads lifted, overload events, brake operations and faults. There is no indoor positioning, no tags and no map, and it does not identify operators or record who was driving. If you need load positioning, that is a different system and a different conversation.
No. Statutory obligations are unchanged, and scheduled maintenance still happens. What changes is what the visit knows: the crane's real hours, its load spectrum, its overload events and its brake use are already on the table, so the time is spent on what the data points at instead of on rediscovering it.
Yes, and to a crane already in service. How much of the data set you get depends on what the existing control system provides — on a modern control most of it comes straight from the controller, on an older crane some of it has to be instrumented. We look at the controls first and tell you which parts you would actually get before quoting.
By counting what the crane has actually done against what its duty class assumed it would do. The class encodes an expected number of hours at an expected load spectrum; Crane Tracking measures both for real. That gives a view of consumed design life and a warning when the crane is being run outside its class — which is a different problem from wear, and often more urgent.
Get a recommendation
Tell us the crane, its age and how it is controlled today — including cranes we did not build. We will say which of the eight monitored areas you would get on that crane, and show you the data from one that already has it.
Or call 444 8 440
Designed and built to EN, FEM and ISO standards · CE marked · duty class defined per project (our build range: FEM 1Bm–5m / ISO M3–M8) · manufacturing in İzmir since 2004
