FEATURE | BELOW-THE-HOOK
designs. Terminology can vary here. “With paper rolls, the centre is referred to as the ‘core’,” says Dan Brenneman, below-the-hook specialist at Caldwell. “But with steel coils or rolls and others, that space is typically just referred to as the ‘inside diameter’ or ID. “Caldwell’s Model 90 lifts and transports
the roll in an eye-vertical orientation, supporting it on its ends and leaving the core of the roll – the hole through its centre – open and pointing skywards. The Model 90P version carries them the other way, with the forks supporting the length of the coil and the axis horizontal. Both can lift up to 10 tons in their standard versions but we may be able to customise a unit to give a higher capacity if required.” Short, stubby rolls – where the diameter
is greater than the length – can be handled by pallet-type designs. Caldwell’s Model 90 lifts and transports the roll in a vertical orientation, supporting it on its ends and leaving the core of the roll – the hole through its centre – open and pointing skywards. The Model 90P version carries them the other way, with the axis horizontal. Both can lift up to 10 tons.
Longer rolls – visualise a carpet rolled up
– may have a long hole through the centre, which is ideal to supply a lifting point; or they may have that hole already filled with a pole or rod that sticks out at either end – which again offers an attachment point. For the first of these, Harrington offers its HRLCH - Roll Lifting C-Hook, which is custom-made to specifications of length, capacity and so on. The long prong that forms the lower, carrying arm, part of the C fits securely into the inner diameter of the roll, holding it from one end only. The carrying arm should be as long as the roll, for safety and to support its full length. As with C-hooks for lifting shorter coils the design is simple, effective and efficient, and has no moving parts. Below-the-hook specialists Bushman offers its Model 600 C-hook, intended for paper rolls. A feature of Bushman C-hooks is that they can be equipped with integral load weighing systems. The accuracy of the load cells is from +/- 0.2% to 0.5% of full load. Staying with long cylindrical rolls, for the second alternative of loads that come with a rod through the central hole and
protruding at either end, the Mazzella Group offers a roll lifter in the form of a beam with hooks at each end; the rod fits into the hooks and is carried by them. Mazzella also offers an adjustable roll lifter in the form of a 2.0-ton capacity lifting beam that has shackles at each end to take the centre rod. An alternative, requiring no kind of
hole or rod at all, is simply to grasp the cylindrical load, whatever it might be, around the middle with a grab-like device. Camlok’s TRU Round stock grabs are exactly that: scissor grabs designed for round-stock material or pipes. Capacities are from 100kg to 4,000kg; with an optional protective lining it can pick up materials with sensitive surfaces – they should be dry, clean and free of oil and grease. Almost every type of load will have some sort of device that is generally more efficient and almost always a lot safer than a simple hook, and for most loads there will be more than one choice of device and of manufacturer. Take your pick. There is a whole world of below-the-hook devices out there, and one of them will almost certainly be a good fit for your load.
POWER-DRIVEN GRIPPERS HAVE IT WRAPPED
Power – electric, pneumatic or hydraulic – can transform the handling of heavier and some specialist or rapid-cycle loads. Handling Concepts of Stoke Prior in Worcestershire, for example, has a range of pneumatic grippers. Grippers, of course, hold up their load by friction – they squeeze onto the load from either side – and friction requires force, sometimes considerable force, which has to be maintained throughout the lift. Handling Concepts recently supplied a paper-processing plant with a pneumatic gripper that can lift loads of up to 50kg.
It grasps paper core tubes by pneumatic-powered arms, lifts them, and then rotates them through 90° so that they can be placed on a mandrel. The gripper itself is supported by a pneumatic rope balancer, which supplies the lifting power. The power for rotating the load however is manual, via a hand-wheel – but since the centre of the part of the operator.
The joint pneumatic and manual controls make a system that is intuitive to operate, and provide a solution that reduces risk of injury and increases productivity.
34 | April 2025 |
www.hoistmagazine.com
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