With the rapid development of modern industry and the expansion of production scale, thematerial handling expense proportion in production costs is getting higher and higher. Therefore, how to choose the crane properly and correctly is of great significance to improve the productivity, give full play to the effective function of the crane, meet the using requirements, reduce the use cost, improve the economic efficiency and ensure the safety of operation. The following is a brief description of how to properly select the appropriate bridge crane.
1. basic parameter selection
The crane basic parameters crane represent the cranes main characteristics performance and operating capacity .They are the basis for the crane correct selection.The basic parameters of the overhead crane include lifting capacity, lifting height, working class , working speed and span.
1.1 the lifting capacity 
The maximum capacity that a crane allowed to operate during normal operation is called rated lifting capacity. Normally, when the lifting capacity is more than 10t, we can set two hoisting mechanisms to improve the working efficiency. In the fixed process, the lifting material capacity is basically same. In the situation of the crane is basically full loaded, you can cancel the auxiliary hoisting mechanism to simplify the crane structure and reduce costs. It is optional as needed.
1.2 the lifting height 
Lifting height refers to the vertical distance from the ground to the maximum lifting position of the hoisting device. If the hoisting device falls underground, 
The vertical distance between the ground and the hoisting device lowest position is called the drop depth. The total lifting height in this situation is the sum of the lifting height above the ground and the depth of the floor underground.
1.3 Working class 
The bridge crane installation and the working conditions vary widely .the lifting capacity using level and operating frequency vary accordingly also . In order to economically and rationally use the crane, we need to select the appropriate work class according to the different working conditions. Bridge crane work class is divided into A1 ~ A8, 8 working class in total . According to crane using level and load state, that is to say we can confirm the working class through the calculation according to crane using frequency and load state
1.4 working speed
The working speed of the overhead crane includes the lifting speed, the trolley travelling speed and crane travelling speed. The choice of working speed depends on a variety of factors. First with the lifting capacity, the work speed also depends on the work class and the using requirements. According to the necessary requirements , we can also go for two-speed (fast, slow), micro speed or speed governing. The working speed is also related to the size of the crane's service space.
1.5 span
The horizontal distance between the centerlines of the bridge crane rails is called the span. The span of the crane depends mainly on the width of the crane service space, and the span for the crane within the workshop depends on the width of the building.
2. Structural selection 
2.1 bridge
The bridge is the main body of the metal structure. The bridge of the overhead crane has single girder and double girder two types, which consists of one or two main girders and the end beam on both sides of the span. Generally in the case of lifting capacity less than 10t, the working class is lower, the span is small, the travelling speed is not high and the crane is not frequently used, we will use the single girder overhead crane . In other cases ,wecan choose double girder overhead crane ,it has the good stability ,stress conditions and better running performance.
2.2 hoisting trolley 
Hoisting trolleys are used to achieve lifting and travelling along the bridge.Its performance directly affects the performance of the entire crane. Generally, we use the upper-setting hoisting trolley for the double girder bridge crane .But for single girder overhead cranes we usually use electric hoist and travelling trolley suspended under the single beam. This structure is lighter and flexible .
2.3 operation mode
We generally use the cab control for the heavy duty lifting , high working class and high travelling speed crane to ensure safe operation. The cab is usually fixed on one side of the bridge.
If the crane span is large, in the case of complex operation, we can use the format of control cab travelling with the hoisting trolley .
When we using pendant control .The travelling speed of the operated crane is generally not more than 45 m / min
2.4 grabbing device
Choosing the right grabbing device is important for safe manufacture and productivity increasing. In order to adapt to the loading and unloading of various items, the commonly used grabbing device has hooks, grapples, electromagnetic sucker, rings, tie, clamp, vacuum sucker, hopper, bucket and bearing beam. Besides , there are some special tools for container cranes 
3. Travelling performance selection
In order to make the bridge crane meet the using requirements in the special environmental conditions or in the specific working conditions,we can offer some special requirements about the crane travelling performance,including environmental requirements, automatic control and security requirements
4. Other options
Except the abovefactors , there are some other necessary factors in the selection of bridge cranes, such as the requirements of the control cab, color requirements, crane weight and price.
Price is one of the important factors in choosing a crane. The crane function, performance and reliability are important part of the price.