Underslung Cranes to Bolivia for Low-Headroom Packaging Plant Expansion

VOITTO Crane delivered three underslung cranes to a plastic packaging manufacturer in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, as part of a plant expansion completed without any civil works. Suspended from the existing roof trusses, the cranes added lifting capacity across three production bays while keeping the floor clear — a solution built specifically for a low-headroom workshop that could not accommodate conventional top-running cranes.

Project Overview

Project Background

The customer produces plastic film and rigid packaging for the Bolivian food and beverage industry. Growing demand led to a third production line and a new packing area inside an existing building, but the company wanted to avoid the cost and downtime of reinforcing the structure. The plant needed three cranes — two 5-ton units for mold changes and finished goods handling, and one 3.2-ton unit for the packing line — installed in a building that had never been designed for overhead lifting.

Challenge: Workshop Has No Room for a Conventional Crane

Not enough headroom. The roof trusses sat at 6.8 m, leaving an effective hook height of less than 5m for a conventional top-running crane once the runway beam depth and safety clearance were deducted. The tallest molds and bulk bags on the new line simply would not clear.

No corbels, no free columns. The existing steel columns were fully occupied by racking, cable trays and piping. Building new corbels for a top-running crane runway would have meant welding to loaded columns — a structural intervention the plant was not prepared to make.

Crowded floor. Forklifts, pallet trucks and the new production line already competed for the same aisles. Any crane solution supported by floor-standing columns would have consumed production space the expansion was meant to add.

The Solution: An Underslung Crane Suspended From the Roof

The answer was an underslung crane: instead of running on top of runway beams supported by columns and corbels, the crane’s end trucks hang from the lower flange of runway beams that are themselves suspended from the roof trusses. The crane travels beneath the roof structure, using space that a conventional crane cannot reach.

Single girder versus double girder. All three cranes handle loads well within single girder range — molds, film rolls and palletized bags — so a single girder underslung design gave the required capacity at the lowest dead weight, an important factor when the load is transferred to an existing roof.

LX versus NLX. The two 5-ton cranes in the molding hall use the LX underslung design: a proven, economical single girder crane with a CD-type wire rope hoist, sufficient for A4 duty and straightforward maintenance. For the packing line, where headroom was tightest and positioning had to be gentle, the customer chose the NLX European underslung crane — a compact European hoist mounted close to the girder, with variable-frequency lifting and travel. The lower built-in height of the NLX recovered roughly 300 mm of hook height compared with the LX layout, which was decisive for lifting tall shrink-wrapped stacks.

Equipment Delivered

Key Features Delivered

Hook height gained where it mattered most. The NLX on the packing line delivered 6.5 m of lifting height under a roof with only 7.8 m of clearance — enough to stack finished packs two high, which the previous forklift operation could not do.

Floor space released, not consumed. Because no columns or crane legs touch the ground, roughly 300 m² of aisle previously reserved for forklift turning circles became usable production and storage area — space the customer had planned to build, but got for free.

Zero civil works, zero shutdown. Suspending the runway from the roof trusses avoided six new columns, two runway girders and an estimated five weeks of structural work. The cranes were installed bay by bay over weekends while production continued.

Why an Underslung Crane for Low-Headroom Workshops

An underslung crane is the standard answer whenever a building has the roof but not the structure: textile plants, packaging lines, machine shops, warehouses and older factories where columns are crowded and headroom is short. Because the runway hangs from the roof, the crane gains the 500–800 mm that a top-running crane loses to its runway beam and clearance — often the difference between lifting a load and not lifting it at all.

For plant expansions, an underslung crane for factory expansion without civil works is equally compelling: existing trusses are assessed, runway beams are suspended, and lifting capacity is added without touching foundations, columns or the production floor.

Results

All three cranes are installed, tested and in regular use. The customer’s production efficiency has increased by 30%. Mold replacement work in the injection molding workshop is much faster than before, and finished goods can be arranged on the packing line without forklifts occupying the aisle.The customer is satisfied with our cranes and intends to keep cooperating with VOITTO Crane.

FAQ

Can an underslung crane be installed in an existing building?
Yes — that is its main advantage. The roof structure is assessed, runway beams are suspended from the trusses, and no new columns or corbels are required.

How much headroom does an underslung crane need?
Less than a top-running crane of the same capacity. As a rule of thumb, an underslung design recovers 500–800 mm of hook height, and a European NLX layout recovers more than a standard LX.

Is an underslung crane available in Bolivia?
Yes. Voitto exports underslung cranes to Bolivia and across South America, including engineering support, export packing, installation guidance and after-sales service.

Request a Quotation

Planning an underslung crane for a low-headroom workshop or a factory expansion without civil works? Send us your building drawings, roof truss spacing and load details — our engineers will confirm feasibility and reply with a proposal within 24 hours.