GUEST COLUMN Levo logic
With Industry 4.0 reshaping manufacturing, smart below-the-hook solutions keep workers safer, improve productivity and open the door to new efficiencies, explains Doug McElravy, manager of industrial sales – regional team; and Patrick Clark, manager of industrial sales – channel partners, at pewag.
F
or decades, below-the-hook equipment, such as hooks, clamps and spreader beams, were purely mechanical. These
products were durable and effective, but they placed operatives close to suspended loads, creating risk. The Fourth Industrial Revolution, or Industry
4.0, represents the digital transformation of manufacturing and wider industry through the integration of cyber-physical systems, the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI) and data analytics. It’s about making factories, machines and supply chains smart, connected and self-optimising. Lifting and rigging equipment has been more influenced by this mechatronic process than many outside the walls of our fast- paced, dynamic sector realise. As we know, a mechanical product becomes mechatronic when it no longer acts purely
mechanically but starts to sense, decide and respond through electronic control. We have entered a new chapter where automation, sensors and electromechanical systems are transforming below-the-hook devices into intelligent systems that can sense, verify and communicate. We’re seeing automated hooks that combine
steel jaws with wireless electronics and embedded safety logic. Smart clamps now marry mechanical grips with sensors confirming load engagement. Vision-assisted lifting is built on cranes, cameras and AI-based analysis for risk detection. Below-the-hook innovation has firmly – and comfortably – taken its place alongside robotics, AI and Industry 4.0, not as niche gadgets but central to the manufacturing revolution.
Mechatronic perfection Lifting is the perfect mechatronic industry; it
is a sector that seamlessly unites mechanical excellence with robotic intelligence and sets a benchmark for the Industry 4.0 era. Take pewag’s product range as an example.
This single industrial lifting portfolio includes a wide spectrum of below-the-hook solutions designed for safe and efficient handling in challenging environments. Offerings feature lifting beams and spreader bars for stabilising asymmetrical or elongated loads; lifting clamps for securely gripping plates and blocks; and lifting magnets for handling ferromagnetic materials under overhead cranes and hoists. Pewag also provides a range of lifting points – both weldable and threaded – that offer secure anchoring for rigging systems, along with essential chain accessories, such as locking hooks, shackles and wire rope fittings, to enhance lifting configuration flexibility and safety.
Industry 4.0, sustainability and vertically integrated manufacturing reinforce each other. 58 Winter 2025 |
ochmagazine.com
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