January 28 - McLaughlin Hoist & Crane has incorporated a Straightpoint load pin into a low headroom lifting beam application at a facility that machines components from metal bar.
The 7.5-tonne capacity lifting beam, manufactured by The Caldwell Group, is being utilised below the hook of an overhead crane at the company's receiving and storage yard. The low headroom design allows it to handle material over and onto top racks of a multi-tier storage system.
The Straightpoint load pin monitors the weight of raw bar stock when unloading trucks and picking material to send onto the machining floor. A scoreboard display was also mounted on the structure of the crane to allow the operator to monitor the load without having to hold an additional handheld display unit.
Communication between the load pin and the scoreboard is wireless, so no additional cords are required, explained Straightpoint.
McLaughlin manager John McLaughlin said: "A tare circuit was wired into the crane controls to zero out the loads on the lifting device. Adjustable chain slings were utilised with the lifting device so that the operator could connect to the bar stock in a choker hitch and shorten the slings when needed to go on top or over the storage racks.
"We had originally considered using an inline load monitor, such as the Radiolink Plus. However, there was limited vertical space between the maximum hook height and the customer's steel storage racks, which pointed us towards a low headroom solution.
"By going with a low headroom lifting beam and substituting the standard bail pin with a load pin, we were able to meet the customer's headroom requirements while also providing them with a load monitor."
While McLaughlin devised the below-the-hook solution for the customer, the company also worked together with Straightpoint and Caldwell to design and manufacture the final product, which has now been successfully integrates into the customer's yard.
