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Hydraulic lifting equipment is a mainstay in most industrial workplaces and warehouses, and at the Lifting Equipment Store, we stock a number of tools that utilise hydraulic technology to make your life easier. Hydraulics are operated via pumps, using oil solutions and pistons to apply and distribute pressure either with or without the use of external power sources.
In this article, we will break down everything you need to know about the various different hydraulic tools that we offer, so you can better understand the technology as a whole, as well as knowing which tools might come in handy in your workplace specifically.
As always, if you’re not feeling confident by the end of this read, feel free to get in touch with us here, and a member of our team will explain anything you need to know. And without further ado, let’s start by looking at the base of all hydraulics, the hydraulic cylinder!
WHAT IS A HYDRAULIC CYLINDER?Hydraulic ...
Chain Hoists serve as a really useful lifting tool on a day to day basis for riggers. Lifting loads up to 50,000kg, that's a huge amount of pressure for such a machine, however, a chain hoist is built and tested to take the pressure of such activities. If maintained correctly and used within its capacities a well build industrial hoist should last for a very long time, we have seen GIS hoists in particular at almost 50 years old, still in action and running sound!
What is suitable maintenance?
Suitable maintenance programmes meet the requirement of the hoist and by this we mean based upon the usage of the hoist; if the hoist is used infrequently then you may find you only need to run a maintenance every 6-12 months, if the usage is more intense then maintenance might even need to be run every month. This would include essential checks to the hoists body, electrical panel, load chain and other vital components along with lubricating the load chain or wire...
One thing is specifying what your chain hoist must do, another is ensuring that it can be used safely. Both are vital. Get one wrong and you could end up costing your company a wedge of money or worse, a fatal injury.
Safety first!
Before you even begin to question specification for a hoist you should firstly seek the help of a structural engineer. A structural engineer will be able to assist you as to where the hoist can be positioned. If running on a beam the engineer will be able to tell you how big and what type of beam you require in order to lift the desired rate. So to an extent, yes you do have to think about specification, but only brief details such as the maximum capacity to lift.
Am I lifting above heads?
If the answer to this question is YES, then you need to be very careful and ensure you are sold the correctly rated hoist(s). When hoisting above peoples heads (usually in a theatre) by law the hoist is required to conf...