The Vihorlat Snina plant closed in 1993, but its cranes did not. Hundreds of overhead cranes and hoists of the VUDUT, VT1, VT1.1, JEVS, DEVS, JRVS, DRVS and OEVS series still work in Slovak halls today. They are heavy, simple and durable — with good parts they will last another 20 years.
There is only one problem: where do you get spare parts for a machine that has been out of production for 30 years.
That is why we keep Vihorlat Snina spare parts in stock in Michalovce — and manufacture the pieces we do not stock to the original production documentation.
Why we have the parts
The core of our team is made up of designers and foremen who designed and built cranes at Vihorlat. When the plant was closing down, we took over the production documentation — and we still manufacture parts to it today. Not lookalikes that “sort of fit”, but parts made to the original drawings, materials and heat treatment.
What we keep permanently in stock
Our warehouse in Michalovce covers the parts that fail most often:
- complete brakes, brake drums, brake shoes and linings,
- crane travel wheels and bearing housings,
- rope drums, rope sheaves, wire ropes,
- sheave blocks, hooks and hook safety latches,
- PV and PS gearboxes and housings, pinion and splined shafts,
- limit switches, conductor-rail collectors, control panels,
- ELHA and ELDRO electrohydraulic drives,
- complete hoists and their travel units.
A part we do not stock, we manufacture from the documentation. All we need is the crane type and ideally the serial number — from it we know the exact series and version.
Genuine part or lookalike
The lookalike market works simply: the part looks the same, costs less and fails sooner. With a brake lining or a pinion you find out within a few months — with a hook or a drum it may not be just about downtime.
A genuine part made from the documentation has the correct material, hardening and tolerances. On a lifting device that is not a detail but a safety requirement — and at inspection time, a matter for the report.
When repair is not enough: modernization
There are three situations where parts alone will not sensibly save an old crane:
- The hoist is at the end of its service life — instead of repairing a 40-year-old mechanism, we fit a new SWF hoist with twice the service life and better brakes.
- The electrical installation is unmaintainable — a new control panel, frequency inverters and radio remote control solve both the failures and operator safety.
- Legislation has changed — we retrofit missing safety devices (load limiter, overload monitoring) so the crane passes inspection without objections.
Modernization costs a fraction of a new crane and, with a healthy steel structure, pays off almost every time. We describe several approaches in the article modernization or a new crane.
Looking for a specific part? Send us the crane type and serial number via Vihorlat Snina spare parts — we will confirm availability and price.