Overhead Crane Types and Applications Guide: Choosing the Right Crane for Every Job
Introduction
Walk through ten factories and you will see ten different overhead cranes — and no two chosen for exactly the same reason. One plant runs a light single girder crane over an assembly bench. Another runs a 200-tonne double girder crane across a fabrication bay. A third serves a single machine with a jib crane, feeds its line with a KBK system, and handles its yard with a gantry crane. Same broad category, wildly different equipment.
For procurement managers, plant engineers, and facility managers, knowing the types is the first step to specifying the right one. Pick the wrong type and you either overpay for capacity you never use or starve a busy bay of the reach, height, and durability it needs. Pick the right one and the crane quietly earns its keep for decades.
This guide maps the main overhead crane types side by side — single girder, double girder, top-running, underhung, gantry, jib, and KBK — with their capacity ranges, key differences, and ideal use cases. This is article 1 of 3 in the Weiyuan Crane overhead crane series. Here is what you will learn:
- What “overhead crane” actually covers and how the types relate
- The core structural and configuration choices that define each type
- Which crane suits which load, span, and application
What “Overhead Crane” Actually Means
An overhead crane lifts and moves a load along an elevated path, keeping the floor clear beneath it. The classic form is a bridge running on two elevated runways, but the family is broader than that. It includes bridge cranes, gantry cranes that carry their own supports, jib cranes that rotate around a fixed point, and modular KBK systems for light workstation lifting.
Every type answers the same three questions differently: how heavy is the load, how much area must the crane cover, and how much lift height do you need? The rest of this guide sorts the types by how they answer those questions.
Two decisions define most overhead cranes: how many girders the bridge has (single or double), and how the crane sits on its runway (top-running or underhung). We will cover those first, then move to the standalone types — gantry, jib, and KBK.
Takeaway: “Overhead crane” is a family, not a single machine. Match the type to your load weight, area coverage, and lift height before anything else.
Single Girder vs Double Girder Cranes
The first structural choice is how many bridge girders the crane needs. This single decision shapes capacity, hook height, cost, and how hard the crane can work.
Single Girder Cranes
A single girder crane uses one bridge beam spanning the runway, with the hoist and trolley usually running underneath it. It is the lighter, simpler, more economical design.
- Capacity range: commonly up to around 20 tonnes, with most units in the 1 to 10 tonne band.
- Span range: practical up to roughly 20 to 30 metres before deflection pushes toward double girder.
- Strengths: lower price, lighter dead weight, simpler installation, and a compact profile.
- Best for: general manufacturing, workshops, assembly, warehousing, and maintenance bays with moderate loads.
Double Girder Cranes
A double girder crane uses two bridge beams, with the hoist and trolley riding on top of them. The twin-beam design carries heavier loads, spans wider bays, and lifts higher.
- Capacity range: from around 5 tonnes to several hundred tonnes.
- Span range: comfortably beyond 30 metres with the right girder design.
- Strengths: higher capacity, longer spans, greater rigidity, and better hook height — the top-mounted trolley lifts the hook closer to the roof.
- Best for: steel fabrication, heavy machining, foundries, paper mills, and power plants.
How to Choose
Ask four questions: how heavy, how high, how wide, and how hard? Loads under 10 to 20 tonnes, moderate spans, and light-to-moderate duty lean single girder. Heavy loads, wide spans, maximum hook height, or high duty cycles point to double girder. For a full walk-through of sizing these choices to a real specification, see our overhead crane buying guide.
Takeaway: Single girder wins on cost and simplicity for light-to-moderate duty; double girder wins on capacity, span, hook height, and durability.
Top-Running vs Underhung Configurations
Beyond girder count, you decide how the crane sits on its runway. This changes what the crane demands from your building.
Top-Running Cranes
A top-running crane rides on rails mounted on top of the runway beams, which sit on columns or brackets.
- Capacity: the standard for medium and heavy loads — a few tonnes to several hundred.
- Strengths: carries the highest capacities, spans the widest bays, and gives the best hook height. The load path runs straight down through the runway into the columns.
- Trade-off: requires a column-supported runway engineered for the crane loads.
- Best for: most double girder cranes and any heavy-duty installation.
Underhung Cranes
An underhung crane hangs from the bottom flange of the runway beams, usually suspended from the roof structure.
- Capacity: typically light to moderate, commonly up to around 10 tonnes.
- Strengths: excellent coverage close to walls and columns, no floor columns needed, and the ability to share interlocking runways or transfer between bays.
- Trade-off: the roof must carry the crane, which caps capacity and reduces hook height.
- Best for: lighter loads, layouts needing edge-to-edge coverage, or crane-to-crane transfer.
Takeaway: Top-running carries the heavy work and gives the best hook height; underhung frees the floor and maximizes coverage for lighter loads. Your building structure often decides which is possible.
Gantry Cranes
A gantry crane carries its own supports. Instead of relying on an elevated runway, it stands on legs that travel along ground-level rails, so it needs no building structure at all.
- Capacity range: from a few tonnes to several hundred tonnes.
- Configurations: a full gantry stands on two legs on parallel floor rails; a semi-gantry stands on one leg and rests its other end on a wall-mounted rail.
- Strengths: complete independence from the building, ideal for open yards and outdoor sites, and free to travel long distances along the rails.
- Best for: outdoor storage yards, steel and precast handling, shipyards, ports, and any site without a suitable building to support a crane.
Because gantry cranes often work outdoors and travel through shared floor or yard space, they carry hazards indoor cranes never face — wind stability, corrosion, and a moving travel path among people and vehicles. Match the gantry type to your site, your loads, and your exposure.
Takeaway: Gantry cranes bring heavy lifting to open areas with no runway required — full gantry for standalone yard coverage, semi-gantry where one side can lean on a building.
Jib Cranes
A jib crane is a single rotating boom mounted to a column, wall, or mast. A hoist rides a trolley along the boom, which swings through an arc, covering a circular area around one fixed point.
- Capacity range: commonly 0.25 to 5 tonnes, with heavier models up to around 10 tonnes.
- Reach: commonly 2 to 8 metre boom lengths.
- Mounting types: floor-mounted (freestanding), wall-mounted, and mast-mounted.
- Strengths: compact, economical, and ideal for ergonomic, repetitive lifting at a single workstation. A freestanding jib needs no building support.
- Best for: feeding one machine, loading a single station, or supplementing a larger overhead crane with focused detail work.
A jib crane concentrates its entire load and the leverage of the boom through one mount, so the overturning moment governs its foundation and anchoring. Where the work happens at fixed points rather than across an area, a jib crane delivers precise lifting without paying for coverage you do not use.
Takeaway: Jib cranes own the workstation — light-to-moderate loads over a short reach, rotating around one fixed mount.
KBK Modular Light Crane Systems
A KBK system is a modular light crane built from standardized enclosed track profiles, trolleys, connectors, and suspension brackets that bolt together. Because the joints are bolted rather than welded, the whole layout can be extended, shortened, or relocated as production changes.
- Capacity range: typically up to around 2,000 kg (2 tonnes).
- Layouts: monorail (a straight line), single-girder suspension crane (a rectangular zone), or a full grid.
- Strengths: flexibility, low headroom, light weight, and effortless hand-pushed ergonomic operation on low-friction track.
- Best for: automotive assembly lines, general manufacturing, and dedicated workstations where light, repetitive lifting meets a layout that may change.
KBK sits at the lightest end of the overhead crane family. Its signature strength is ergonomics — an operator moves the load by hand with a light push, cycle after cycle — combined with the freedom to reconfigure the layout instead of replacing a fixed crane.
Takeaway: KBK is the tool for light, repetitive, station-based lifting in a plant whose layout may change — flexible, ergonomic, and reconfigurable.
Comparing the Types at a Glance
Use this quick comparison to narrow your options, then confirm the detail against your real loads and site.
| Type | Typical capacity | Coverage | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Single girder | Up to ~20 t | Full bay | Light-to-moderate general lifting |
| Double girder | 5 t to several hundred t | Full bay | Heavy loads, wide spans, high duty |
| Top-running | A few t to several hundred t | Full bay | Most heavy-duty cranes, best hook height |
| Underhung | Up to ~10 t | Full bay, close to walls | Light loads, edge coverage, transfer |
| Gantry | A few t to several hundred t | Open area, no runway | Outdoor yards, sites without structure |
| Jib | 0.25 to ~10 t | Circular, one point | Single workstation, ergonomic lifting |
| KBK | Up to ~2 t | Line, zone, or grid | Light repetitive assembly work |
How to Read the Table
Start with capacity to eliminate the types that cannot carry your load. Then use coverage to sort the rest: fixed points favor a jib or KBK, a whole bay favors a bridge crane, and an open yard with no structure points to a gantry. Finally, confirm hook height, duty class, and what your building can support.
Takeaway: Capacity narrows the field, coverage sorts the survivors, and hook height plus building structure confirm the final choice.
Matching the Crane to Your Application
Here is a practical framework to reach the right type without guesswork.
Step 1: Weigh the Load
Add your heaviest lift, all rigging, and a safety margin. Below 2 tonnes keeps KBK in play. Under 10 tonnes at a single point suits a jib crane. Higher loads or bay-wide work point to a bridge or gantry crane.
Step 2: Map the Coverage
Does lifting happen at a fixed point, across a bay, or in an open yard? A point favors jib or KBK. A bay favors a single or double girder bridge crane. An open area with no runway favors a gantry.
Step 3: Check Hook Height and Duty
Tight buildings and high loads favor a top-running double girder for maximum hook height. High cycle rates demand a higher duty class — the most commonly overlooked specification factor. Get the duty class wrong and even a correctly sized crane wears out years early.
Step 4: Confirm the Building
A top-running crane needs a column-supported runway; an underhung crane loads the roof; a freestanding jib or gantry needs no building at all. Verify what your structure can carry before committing.
Once you have narrowed the type, our overhead crane buying guide walks through turning that choice into a tight, comparable specification.
Takeaway: Load, coverage, hook height and duty, then building structure — work through them in order and the right type emerges from your real needs.
Common Mistakes When Choosing a Crane Type
Even experienced buyers repeat a handful of costly errors. Knowing them upfront is cheap insurance.
- Sizing on load alone. Forgetting the spreader beam, slings, and shackles quietly overloads the crane on every lift. Size to the load plus all rigging plus a margin.
- Ignoring duty class. A crane correct for capacity but under-classified for its cycle rate fails early. Specify the class from your real duty.
- Overpaying for coverage. Installing a full bridge crane where a jib or KBK would serve the fixed-point work better and cheaper.
- Overlooking hook height. Discovering too late that the crane’s own structure eats the lift height you needed.
- Skipping the structural check. Ordering before confirming the building or foundations can carry the crane.
For the safety and compliance side of running any of these cranes, see our overhead crane safety and OSHA compliance guide, and for getting the crane running correctly, our overhead crane installation guide.
Takeaway: Most type-selection mistakes trace back to forgotten rigging, an ignored duty class, or mismatched coverage. Close those gaps and you avoid the errors that cost the most.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What are the main types of overhead cranes?
The main types are single girder and double girder bridge cranes (defined by the number of bridge beams), top-running and underhung configurations (defined by how the crane sits on its runway), gantry cranes (which carry their own supports on ground rails), jib cranes (a rotating boom around a fixed point), and KBK modular light crane systems (for light, reconfigurable workstation lifting). Each answers the same core questions — load weight, area coverage, and lift height — differently, so the right type depends on your specific application.
Q: What is the difference between a single girder and double girder overhead crane?
A single girder crane uses one bridge beam with the hoist usually running underneath, making it lighter, cheaper, and ideal for loads up to around 20 tonnes on moderate spans. A double girder crane uses two bridge beams with the hoist running on top, allowing higher capacities into the hundreds of tonnes, wider spans, greater rigidity, and more hook height. Choose single girder for light-to-moderate duty on cost grounds, and double girder for heavy loads, wide spans, high duty cycles, or maximum lift height.
Q: When should I choose a gantry crane instead of a bridge crane?
Choose a gantry crane when you need heavy lifting across an open area with no building structure to support a runway — typically outdoor storage yards, steel and precast handling, shipyards, and ports. A gantry crane stands on its own legs and travels on ground-level rails, so it needs no columns or roof support. A standard bridge crane is the better choice when you have a building that can carry an elevated runway and want full bay coverage indoors.
Q: What is the difference between a jib crane and an overhead bridge crane?
A jib crane is a single rotating boom that covers a circular area around one fixed mount and suits light-to-moderate lifting at a single workstation, typically up to around 10 tonnes. An overhead bridge crane uses a bridge on two runways to cover a full rectangular bay and handles everything from light to very heavy loads. The core difference is coverage: a jib serves one point, while a bridge crane serves a whole bay. Many facilities use both, with jibs handling detail work at stations.
Q: How much can each type of overhead crane lift?
KBK systems handle up to around 2 tonnes; jib cranes commonly 0.25 to 5 tonnes, with heavier models to around 10 tonnes; underhung cranes typically up to around 10 tonnes; single girder cranes up to around 20 tonnes; and double girder, top-running, and gantry cranes from a few tonnes to several hundred tonnes. Always size to your heaviest load plus rigging plus a safety margin, not the bare load, and leave headroom if your loads may grow.
Q: Which overhead crane type is best for ergonomic, repetitive lifting?
A KBK modular light crane system is best for light, repetitive, hand-guided lifting. Its enclosed low-friction track lets an operator move loads with a light push, reducing fatigue over thousands of cycles a shift. A jib crane is the next best for ergonomic lifting at a single fixed point. Both suit workstation and assembly-line work far better than a full bridge crane, which is powered and positioned by controls and built for heavier, bay-wide duty.
Q: How do I decide which overhead crane type fits my facility?
Work through four factors in order. First, weigh the heaviest load plus rigging to eliminate types that cannot carry it. Second, map the coverage — a fixed point favors jib or KBK, a bay favors a bridge crane, and an open yard favors a gantry. Third, confirm hook height and duty class, since a top-running double girder recovers lift height and a correct duty class prevents early wear. Fourth, verify what your building or foundations can support before committing.