Nord: A Heavy Lift

OMi Crane Systems works with NORD DRIVESYSTEMS to keep manufacturing moving

Whether it’s moving a coil of sheet steel to a stamping line or setting a massive cast iron forging onto the bed of a CNC boring mill, manufacturers depend on cranes, trolleys, and hoists to lift and transport heavy objects. This is the job of OMi Crane Systems, a company that’s been designing, building, and servicing industrial lifting systems since 1969.

Unlike companies focused on ports or marine work, OMi specializes in indoor overhead cranes—mainly electric overhead traveling cranes that operate inside steel warehouses, coil handling plants, and metal fabrication facilities. Its products aren’t mass-produced, however.

Tightly Focused

It’s a relationship that spans more than 25 years. At first, OMi began using NORD gearboxes and motors on a fairly selective basis, but the partnership deepened around 2011 when OMi started building its own hoists. That move called for bigger gearboxes and more horsepower—and it made ready-made drive solutions even more critical. NORD provides a complete, preassembled unit that fits neatly into OMi’s production flow.

At its core, OMi specializes in the design and manufacturing of electric overhead traveling cranes. Unlike many suppliers that offer off-the-shelf systems, OMi takes a customized approach, tailoring every crane to the exact specifications of the building and the application it serves.

Most of OMi’s cranes are designed for indoor environments such as manufacturing plants and coil handling facilities. While the company can also produce outdoor gantry cranes, its primary focus remains on precision indoor lifting, with steel processing and warehousing centers representing its largest market share.

The demands of these industries are unique. Steel coils, for example, can weigh tens of thousands of pounds, and facilities often run 24/7 operations where a stalled crane can halt production. Many of OMi’s customers require cranes that not only lift heavy loads but also perform a high number of cycles each day without overheating or wearing down prematurely. That makes the engineering behind each crane and its components critical to long-term reliability.

Customization Conundrum

This broad horsepower range—from half-horsepower travel motors to the 100-horsepower hoist drive just mentioned—gives OMi the ability to spec out each crane’s lifting capacity exactly to the application. Yet speed is also crucial. In high-throughput environments like coil warehousing, even minor differences can significantly impact production, which is why it’s not uncommon for customers to request lifting speeds tailored to the flow of their assembly lines or staging areas, where even seconds shaved off a cycle can add up to meaningful gains over time.

Using standardized components also helped to streamline OMi’s engineering process. The company’s design team can size and select drives from NORD’s catalog without relying heavily on external technical support, and they routinely use myNORD online customer tools to quote units, download 3D models, and generate drawings directly compatible with OMi’s internal CAD libraries.

Prove It!

OMi has never had to use NORD’s 911 emergency breakdown hotline despite running a high volume of the company’s products over many years. Instead, its engineers work independently, sizing components, pulling drawings, and submitting orders directly through myNORD, NORD’s online customer portal, without having to stop and make phone calls to sales or technical support.

For OMi Cranes and its customers alike, having a reliable drive system supplier isn’t just about convenience—it’s about keeping material moving efficiently and without fail.

For more information, visit https://www.nord.com.