The remarkably light weight and a “Smart-Latch” mechanism that functions as a quick connect between the mast and boom enable one user to set up one, or more, CompOZite Davit Cranes quickly and easily.
in lieu of all-steel construction. Second, we wanted to make sure the crane could be assembled quickly and easily, by one user. Tis brought about what we internally call the ‘Smart-Latch’—an ingenious latching mechanism that functions as a quick-connect between the mast and boom, all with no moving parts.” Once Lucas and the team had a lightweight structure with an easy-to-assemble mechanism, they did destructive testing, during which their composite materials exceeded their goals. After the final design, they applied for, and were granted, a U.S. patent for the CompOZite Davit Crane. “Mostly, we developed everything in-house,” he explained. “We knew which materials we wanted to use and how we wanted to configure the crane. Once we had a design finalized, we sent out the raw material requirements to a couple of local companies for quoting, which led to a supplier on the East Coast with the exact resources we needed. Certainly, as we scaled up for production, we made slight changes to adhesive formulations, tolerances of components, etc. Tese process/product improvements were done with input from our suppliers to best utilize their strengths.” As far as challenges went, Lucas admitted that one of the largest hurdles was basic user perception and uncertainty. “In an industry that has, for many years, been dominated by steel construction, launching the first composite-materials-based davit crane was met with skepticism,” he affirmed. “In almost every
A CompOZite Davit Crane used to lift a submersible pump onsite in Trinidad.
28
SUMMER 2018
INDUSTRIAL LIFTING EXCHANGE
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36
