Q&A | MANUAL CHAIN HOISTS
you will have all this excess chain often hanging down and around the working area. That can be a little bit of a negative.
IS THAT A SAFETY CONCERN?
AW: It can be. You might be stood on the ground floor level, taking the hoist, the load, down a hole or shaft, so you could actually get a surplus chain on the floor level where you’re stood. But, again, in terms of disadvantages, it’s a very, very small point.
WHAT DIFFERENTIATES ONE MANUAL CHAIN HOIST FROM ANOTHER PRODUCT?
PS: Generally speaking, the basic design is the same. The mechanical advantage is very, very similar, distance of travel… the effort required. They’re all very similar.
AW: In relation to the pinion shaft, load sheave, ratchet system etc., they’re all pretty much of a muchness.
PS: The principles are the same.
AW: Unless you’re talking about the 360s…
PS: …Yale, or Columbus McKinnon, manufacture a product called the Yale 360. With the traditional hand chain block you would tend to operate it from directly below the load or you can stand away from it, so you’re at a slight angle. These 360s can be operated from any position. If you were on top of a mezzanine, you could theoretically still operate the hoist [above the load]. In terms of brands, there’s Tiger, Nitchi,
Yale Tractel, Planeta… There are probably a few Chinese ones we could add to that as well. A lot of the parts originate in the Far East anyway, so they are probably all Chinese or Japanese or Taiwanese at some point in their life. Brand isn’t that important… with rental:
customers just see it as a tool they’re going to have for a few days, a few weeks, then hand back. But from our point of view, it’s important that our equipment is of the right brand and right quality, for longevity of service. There are people in the rental industry that will literally buy a 1.0-ton hoist for £30 to £40 and throw it away at the end of the year. We’ll probably pay £100 or more
LINK PROJECT
with the view to keep it running for five to seven years, maybe longer depending on, the utilisation. Customers don’t normally specify
[a brand], but that’s not to say it never happens – you will get some customers that will say ‘I want to rent 100 hoists, but they must be Tiger’, which, to be honest, is pretty much the standard in the UK. That’s not to say there aren’t any other
hoists available – of course, there are – but most of the big rental companies offer Tiger as the leading brand. In Europe, we stock a lot of the Nitchi.
It’s a Japanese hoist, which… is like a Swiss watch – in cost and the way it works. The functionalities are exactly the same [as a Tiger] – it won’t pick up any more or any less, but the actual mechanics of it, when you’re operating it, you can hardly hear it.
AW: It should be said that even though there are a lot of different brands out there, even though the principles of the units are the same, you can’t interchange parts from one to the other. It’s not like a Ford car, where you could nip down to Halfords and get Halfords own brand to change the
www.hoistmagazine.com | April 2023 | 35
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