For different types of cranes and load ranges, Nord Drivesystems offers properly dimensioned drive solutions from a single source. For that, the company can rely on locations in more than 80 countries. In Poland, the specialist for hoisting equipment Protea relies on the crane & cargo competence of the complete supplier from North Germany. Protea has been relying on drive solutions and services from Nord Drivesystems for years. For its bridge cranes used, among other things, to transport bales of straw in biogas production, the company uses the Maxxdrive industrial gear units. They can cover torque ranges of up to 282,000 Nm. For the lifting gear, Protea uses a robust Maxxdrive XD with a power of 18.5 kW. These parallel gear units build on the proven Unicase housing principle and have been specially optimized for heavy loads. Due to the elongated arrangement of gear stages, the housing has a large center distance, enabling a U-shaped drive design. Especially with lifting gear drives, the cable drum and the motor can thus easily be arranged on the same side of the gear unit. The drives for cranes and trolleys also build on the Maxxdrive industrial gear units with powers of 0.55 and 11 kW. “Our goal is to work in close coordination with our customers to find the optimum drive solution for their crane applications”, says Gernot Zarp, sales manager at Nord. “With our versatile product portfolio, we offer a wide range of drive components.” The drive specialist thus allows for individual system solutions, whose power, weight, size and service life are precisely tailored to the respective application. Over dimensioning the drive is therefore no longer necessary.” Especially for the design of lifting gear, Nord has extended its portfolio and now offers additional Maxxdrive XD sizes. It is now possible to configure the industrial gear unit with center distances of up to 1,281 mm. With this, the economic and tailor-made dimensioning of lift drives for crane applications is further improved. The installation space is used optimally, significantly reducing the weight of the drive.  All in all, Nord provides its customers with higher flexibility in crane system design. “We chose Nord components because the company is a reliable partner with whom we have been working for many years,” says Tomasz Poprawa, project manager at Protea. “The products are of high quality and recognized throughout the world.” Poprawa highly appreciates the one-piece Unicase housings with their high durability and the low maintenance costs, as well as the double seals ensuring smooth operation without leakage.