C-DRONE GUIDE · 31 JULY 2026
Overhead crane and factory lifting-structure drone inspection: VGP complement, price
An overhead crane works high in a hall, out of sight: you watch it run, rarely up close. Yet its runway girder, crane rails, bolted connections and welds fatigue, corrode and loosen — and their failure endangers everything working below. Close inspection usually means stopping the hall, bringing in a man-lift or erecting a platform, all costly in lost production. The drone approaches these components in flight, a few metres away, without a long interruption, complementing — never replacing — the mandatory periodic check. Here is what it usefully inspects, its place relative to the statutory check, and prices observed in 2026.
Published on 31 July 2026, reviewed on 3 August 2026 — regulations in force as of August 2026.
What the drone sees on a lifting structure
The drone documents in high resolution what stays unreachable without a shutdown: weld seams of girders and connections, incipient fatigue cracks, corrosion of flanges and webs, the state of the crane rail and its fixings, bolting and riveting, wheels and stops. On a hall's frame, it also inspects nodes and bearings in the same flight. The result is a located report, reusable from one visit to the next to track a defect's evolution.
Detecting defects on these steel structures by drone is a studied subject. A study by De Arriba López, Maboudi, Achancaray and Gerke published in 2023 in Applied Geomatics describes non-destructive UAV inspection of a steel lifting structure (container gantry), with automatic detection of rust and areas to repaint from the images (see the study on Google Scholar) — a method directly transferable to the girders and rails of an overhead crane.
Flying indoors, above the lines
Most overhead cranes are indoors: the flight then falls outside aviation regulations but under strict industrial preparation. Light protected drones are used (ducted propellers, cage) to fly safely near structures, often without GPS under a metal roof — piloting relies on proximity sensors and direct line of sight. The hall is set to a safe configuration: crane stopped, ground area cleared under the path, coordination with production and maintenance managers.
A neighbouring use case is covered in our construction crane inspection by drone guide: the logic is the same — approaching a lifting structure without access equipment — applied here to the workshop overhead crane. A study by Stein published in 2018 in the LDIC logistics-dynamics conference proceedings documents precisely the drone safety inspection of gantry cranes and the cost/safety argument of high-definition imaging without access equipment (see the study on Google Scholar).
Complement to the statutory check, not a replacement
Lifting equipment is subject to a periodic statutory check (VGP) carried out by a competent person, with regulated tests and controls. The drone is not meant to replace it: it performs no load test and does not check safety devices in operation. Its value is elsewhere: providing, between two checks or in preparation for one, an exhaustive visual state of the upper parts that are otherwise only examined closely at the statutory visit.
In practice, it lets you catch early incipient corrosion or cracking, target the points to examine closely during the check, and document the evolution of a known defect without stopping the workshop at every inspection. It is the same complementarity as in our stadium and sports-hall structure inspection guide for large steel structures.
Prices observed in 2026
Ranges observed in 2026 (excl. VAT):
- Inspection of an overhead crane and its runway girder (indoor flight, geolocated photo report): €500 to €1,100.
- Hall with several cranes and a frame (combined structure + lifting inspection): €1,100 to €2,500.
- VGP preparation (targeted survey of points to examine): €400 to €900.
- Periodic monitoring (regular passes, visit-to-visit comparison): quoted.
The flight is scheduled for a short shutdown slot agreed with production. Request a quote stating the crane type, the height under hook, the setting (indoor, outdoor) and the goal (condition survey, VGP preparation, defect monitoring).