[WRE | SPOTLIGHT]


Triton Drone suspended at its full testing height of more than 20 feet. Photo courtesy of Caldwell, via U.S. Navy.


and allows Caldwell to offer freight-free shipping, sending items of up to eight feet via UPS. But Stitt knows they could go even smaller with the beams if they wanted to. “In some cases with the standard composite beams,”


he noted, “we haven’t built them as small as we could. We’re concerned visually to go too small because we’re worried people just won’t believe it.”


beams are designed to a B4—two million cycles. Essentially, Stitt said, Dura-Lite™ composite beams are designed for a steel mill environment where they’re lifting 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Te shift Stitt addresses has to do mostly with


perception—a “mind shift,” he calls it. Visitors to the Caldwell booth at LiftEx had the opportunity to see the Dura-Lite beams up close, and hold them. In a lot of ways, they don’t appear all that different from steel beams. When a person handles a composite beam for the first time, however, they often expect it to be heavy. But composites weigh about half of what steel weighs. Tey can be lifted easily, and shipped easily, too—which opens up many possibilities for time and cost savings,


A Strong Future Altogether, for Caldwell, the Triton lift project was a notable success, shedding favorable light on composite lifting products by channeling the naturally high interest around drones to create a platform for education about composite lifting. Since the project, Caldwell has continued to innovate—now performing lifts of approximately 60 tons, markedly higher than what was required for the Triton. But it’s an ongoing challenge for Caldwell. After all, steel is what people have been using to build and lift with in the industry in some form or fashion for the last century. However, Caldwell is optimistic that composites will prevail, and people will see just how useful they can be. “Ultimately,” Stitt emphasized, “they’ll discover that composites are actually much stronger than steel.” y


For more information, visit www.caldwellinc.com.


24


JANUARY–FEBRUARY 2017


WIRE ROPE EXCHANGE


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