MANUAL CHAIN HOIST
In an age of power tools, man-powered hoists are still surprisingly useful. Julian Champkin examines their advantages.
COMING IN HANDY
more slowly. Imagine further that hoist was portable, and so light that it could be attached to any convenient overhead mounting singlehanded. Imagine that you could take it with you anywhere.
I It is rugged, so it can withstand harsh conditions of
storm, wind, rain, up to and including flood. On top of that it doesn’t even cost very much. And, more extraordinary still, it does not need a power source. All of that sounds pretty extraordinary, high-tech and futuristic. It isn’t. It has been around in various forms for a couple of thousand years or more – the manual chain hoist. It goes under other names as well: it is also known as a block-and-tackle hoist or a chain block. It, of course, predates electric chain hoists, pneumatic chain hoists
magine that a chain hoist that could lift a tonne with ease. Imagine that it could also lift heavier loads with not much more effort – though admittedly slightly
and hydraulic chain hoists. There are a few of those, though they are not common. And the combination of advantages listed earlier are as true today as they ever were and are unique to them: no powered hoist can claim them all. Which means that the manual chain hoist is as useful today as it ever was. There are many applications where it remains far more useful, convenient and efficient than any electric or other hoist.
Of course, manual hoists do actually have a power
source – the human operator. The average person can exert a downward pull of somewhere between 18kg and 35kg. The gearing inside the hoist gives a mechanical advantage. Gear ratios of 10:1 and 20:1 are typical on a mid-range capacity hoist; multiple chain-falls can increase the mechanical advantage further. The end result is that a single human being with a manual hoist can lift a load of many tonnes.
A shelf full of Harrington 1t chain blocks. 20 | May/June 2026 |
www.hoistmagazine.com
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