KNOWLEDGE
Towards technology In some respects, the lifting and rigging industry gave load cells their first foothold in the US market. Many equipment distributors and dealers that serve regions of the Americas have had a presence in this sector for generations; the principles of lifting haven’t changed, but it is an industry that has pivoted in recent years towards technology, automation and the Internet of Things (IoT). Load cells have been more readily sourced as a result, where perhaps they weren’t previously when orders were largely limited to custom products for the offshore industry rather than for lifting and rigging applications. One natural driver of load monitoring technology around lifting and rigging equipment is renewable energy; the east coast of the US is a hotbed of offshore wind activity. Load cells are utilised in the manufacture, transportation, erection, use, maintenance and decommission of wind turbines; that’s without all the supplementary work with cables etc. that fall outside of the crane and hoist industry. We have a long-running partnership with Chant Engineering. Notably of British heritage, like us, Chant is a diversified engineering company that designs, manufactures, services, and calibrates testing machines, systems, and related accessories for industrial and military customers. It has stocked and distributed our standard tensile load links (SL-3.0) up to 50-ton capacity and handheld displays (TW-3.0-S) to the US since 2015, and further penetrates the market via a sub-distribution network. Today, up to 70% of our sales attributable to lifting and rigging come from the US.
f The Telemetry Tensile Link and Handheld Display provides a portable and easy to use tool with which to measure different types of force.
There are many different types of force measuring
product, but our TL-3.0 telemetry tensile link load cells or our TS-3.0 telemetry shackle load cells are probably the most popular in lifting and rigging – and I would imagine other manufacturers would say similarly of their tensile links or load shackles. These products alone cover a myriad of applications in cranes, wider construction, and even line tension measuring on winches; in other words, they are very diverse. You might find these load cells in permanent use or employed as a single-use tool in a weighing or testing project. Our tensile links and shackle load cells are typically utilised as measurement devices to weigh or test something, whereas our custom load pins tend to be employed more in permanent applications and form part of clients’ equipment, installed on a crane, for example. Compressive load cells, meanwhile, are becoming
more common in the US, particularly in the heavy-lift sector, for monitoring loads on bridges and other large structures. Our compressive load cells have been used to weigh huge power generators, large offshore structures in the oil and gas industry, and during construction of super yachts and ships. Cranes and hoists are ubiquitous in all such industries. Compressive load cells are used to measure
centre of gravity, which remains one of the more misunderstood applications we encounter, even if Chant Engineering is reporting back on a greater volume of requests for such work. Today, these tasks can be calculated in two-dimensional plane using load cells and distance measurements, even if knowing the true centre of gravity of a three- dimensional structure is a bit more challenging.
The range and robustness of the signal in harsh environments is becoming very important, especially as users are essentially transmitting safety information to the operator, who may need to act on the information they see.
Having a long range is important as it allows
them to stay at a safe distance from the structure they are weighing, along with a transmission that is not affected by high power radio or Wi- Fi. Accompanying software is also becoming important, especially in terms of data-logging, as it allows the customer to have a traceable record of the loads seen against time, thus, providing added confidence.
In conclusion, load cells and lifting go hand in
hand. They are a critical safety device, and in any situation where the load is not known or there is a risk of overloads, the user should be looking to minimise risk and protect both the operators and asset from harm. ^
“Our compressive load cells have been used to weigh huge power generators, large offshore structures in the oil and gas industry, and during construction of super yachts”
30 | Winter 2023 |
www.ochmagazine.com
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