[INNOVATIONS]
CHANGING THE GAME RUD Pioneers with Smart Developments to their Product Line
BY PATRICIA GLYNN
Last year, when Britain-based RUD Chains Ltd. was shortlisted for the prestigious British Construction Industry Awards in the category of Product Innovation, the announcement was, admittedly, wholly unsurprising. After all, the Whistable, Kent-headquartered business is a subsidiary of Germany’s RUD Ketten Rieger & Dietz GmbH, a company widely known as one of the world’s largest manufacturers of round steel chains and has proven itself a pioneering ground-breaker for almost 140 years by consistently bringing inventive developments to market.
In this case, the brand was nominated for one of its newest and perhaps one of its most revolutionary off erings – Radio Frequency Identifi cation technology (RFID) which has been embedded within the company’s chain slings and components. It is, as RUD’s expert team assures, an easy- to-use option which promises to save users both time and money. Notably, it also ups the ante when it comes to helping clients adhere to safety standards. T is prominent addition to the manufacturer’s portfolio
is “a defi nite game changer,” according to Patrick Hughes, RUD’s Regional Sales Engineer, based in their North American subsidiary located in Hiawatha, IA. “To date,” says Hughes, “feedback from customers has been markedly affi rmative. Companies are genuinely impressed with this product as it off ers them a number of distinct advantages and addresses many of the concerns related to traditional, manual methods of inspection.” T e concerns were, in fact, what initially drove RUD to formulate this ingenious solution. “We found
clients were dissatisfi ed with the conventional documentation techniques. T ey expressed a desire for a system which would make it easier to track, identify, trace, and inspect their equipment.” “T e traditional inspection
RFID technology is one of RUD’s latest innovations and the fi rst manufacturer to embed the RFID chips into their products.
process, in reality, is,” he notes, “a manual exercise which can be quite time consuming and can necessitate the completion of lots of paper work. What’s more, there are concerns that some steps or safety checks could potentially be overlooked. In our industry,
there is absolutely no room for error as it can result in signifi cant loss, grave harm or, worst case, even death.” Cognizant of the challenges industry pros had to contend with, RUD, he explains, spent four years developing a viable solution. T e end result, he assures, makes the entire inspection process quicker, less costly, and considerably less complicated. And while RFID technology itself isn’t new, the
RUD Company has cultivated and enhanced it in ways that up until now were unseen. “We are the fi rst to embed the chips directly within the product. T is
WIRE ROPE EXCHANGE MAY-JUNE 2013
27
Photo courtesy of RUD Chains
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