PRODUCTS | LIFTING ATTACHMENTS
marvellously named, but they include spreader beams, wire mesh slings, wheel nets, coil hooks and others. Spanish company Elebia is known for its specialised self-attaching hooks, especially for extreme-environment applications such as steel foundries, where attaching or releasing a hook by hand could be hazardous in the extreme. One of its many offerings is the eTrack lifting clamp for raising sections of railway track. It is an ingenious mix of the age-old self-clamping mechanism with high-tech monitoring and safety added in. The device replaces or hangs below the hook on a hoist or crane. It looks like an inverted ‘U’, with a spring-loaded probe that sticks down from the one of the bottom edges. When the probe is dragged against the rail it makes the clamp swivel on its lifting rope so that the U-shaped opening is in the right orientation for the rail to fit inside it – that is, across the length of the rail rather than along it. The crane then lowers the device onto the rail – the probe contacts the flange of the rail and is pushed inside the device, releasing the clamp mechanism. When the ascending manoeuvre begins the tension in the rope passes through the clamping mechanism, making it automatically lock onto the rail allowing it to be lifted safely. Once the rail has been safely lowered in the right place and there is no tension on the rope the release order can be given by the operator via a remote control, and the clamps unlock and retract. A battery-operated colour-coded LED status indicator on the body of the device shows blue when the load is locked and safe to lift, red as an intermediate ‘Do Not Lift’ warning, and green when the clamp
R Morse Drum’s speciality in action
R Caldwell Tea Cup – for pipes not tea
is unlocked and the load released. White is a warning of a low battery. For a video animation of how the system works, see
https://bit.ly/3UBQumf. Bushman, based in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, are specialists in below-the- hook attachments, both off-the shelf and made-to-order. Think C-hooks, coil grabs, coil lifters, spreader beams, hook blocks, ladle hooks, sheet lifters, plate lifters, bundle lifters, pallet lifters, roll-handling equipment… and that does not begin to exhaust its product list. The company’s sheet lifters handle single or multiple bundles of metal sheets or plates and can be operated by a hand wheel, chain wheel, electric motor or hydraulic cylinders. The firm has a unique ring lifter, which loads forged rings several meters in diameter into and out of vertical lathes, gripping them by either the inside or the outside of the ring. To lift coils of rod, wire spools, paper rolls and the like, C-hooks are a cost-effective tool, but for the heaviest coils, such as flat-rolled steel coils, the company suggests motorised coil grabs as an efficient solution – from Bushman, they are custom-designed to handle the widths and diameters that clients require. Options include coil protection features, motorised rotation, weighing systems, automation, and controls for AC or DC motors.
Bushman points out that an important
factor in heavy-duty lifting applications is the weight of the attachment: the more it weighs, the more it will reduce the hoist’s useful payload. Since Bushman offers equipment for mill duty and industrial applications where capacities can range from a few kilogrammes to hundreds of tons, at the high end of that range the equipment weight becomes seriously significant. The company claims its proven designs offer lower tare (unladed) weights for its products, which, of course, relieves the load on the hoist. Magnetic lifting is another of the ASME
categories that we mentioned at the start – or rather, two of its categories. ASME distinguishes between “close proximity- operated lifting magnets” and remotely operated ones. The first category would include permanent magnets, which need some mechanism to make them release their load. Frequently on light lifting applications a hand lever moves the magnet away from the metal lifting plate, making an air gap. That reduces the magnetic field so that the load drops away from the lifting plate. The second category would cover electromagnets. Electromagnets have been around a long time in applications such as scrap metal loading at steel mills or for lifting steel plate. They need, of course, current
www.hoistmagazine.com | December 2022 | 37
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 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81
