BELOW THE HOOK
have created a lifting device that allows the scientists to turn it and flip it so they can chisel away at this fossil over time.”
Horses for courses A dinosaur fossil is hardly an everyday lifting application; but some below-the-hook requirements can be specialised in ways that are far from obvious. German manufacturers Cromox are specialists in below-the-hook devices from stainless steel and other alloys. “In certain environments, you have to be very careful about the materials you use for lifting,” says their spokeman, Alexander Schönberger. “Explosion-prone situations are one; environments where you have chemicals in the air are another. Chlorides for instance are common; so is hydrogen fluoride. That is a very aggressive chemical that is used in manufacturing stainless steel items which have been welded. They are dipped in it to eliminate the oxides on the surface of the weld for corrosion resistance.” Clean rooms, say for chip production or pharmaceuticals or batteries for electric vehicles, have to be particle free. “But normal lifting chains or painted chain slings produce emissions through particles rubbing off where the links grid against each other,” he says. “Again, you might manufacture something that has a very smooth surface, say a bearing; and you do not want to rub against that with
something hard like a hook. So we design special below-the-hook devices for these.” Often a load has no obvious lifting point.
Cromox makes a series of different lifting points – swivels, hoist screws and the like which are attached to the load and give a proper lifting option. These too can be designed for clean rooms so that they do not emit particles. “We also supply the defence industry. They of course have loads that are so hugely valuable that one dropped load would be catastrophic; so lifting attachments that are tailor-made for each load are required. That of course is much more reliable than having riggers attach slings around your valuable asset.” Defence applications have specific
requirements regarding particle emissions, but in many cases magnetism is also an issue for them. “We have one very urgent inquiry just today, for some hoisting links used on minesweepers, and we have to provide them at a very quick pace. They are made out of 318 LM, which is an austenitic ferritic duplex mixture steel; the ferritic element makes it magnetic, which is a requirement for that application. “Some applications require even more specialised steels and alloys. I cannot share details, but I can say that there is very special stuff for submarines and suchlike.” Generally, he says, Cromox can provide anything that is required by the client if the material is weldable and available on the
Clean room BTH devices from Cromox.
32 | December 2025 |
www.hoistmagazine.com
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