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How to Maximize Safety and Save Time with Efficient Bundle Lifting Solutions

Are inefficient and unsafe bundle lifting practices slowing down your operations and putting your team at risk? In this video, we’ll help you transform the way you handle bundles — making your lifting operations not only safer but also significantly more efficient.

For Operations Managers looking to boost productivity, Maintenance Managers striving for reliable performance, Production Managers seeking streamlined workflows, or EHS Leaders working to eliminate manual handling risks, this guide provides the solutions you need to overcome these challenges.

Here is what you’ll get:

  • A breakdown of various bundle-lifting methods — from traditional slings to advanced devices
  • Clear guidance on selecting the right bundle lifting equipment for your facility and environment
  • Strategies to reduce manual handling, enhance safety, and improve efficiency through automation
  • Common mistakes that lead to accidents and downtime — and how to avoid them
  • Real-world case studies showing how advanced equipment can cut lifting times in half

By the end of this video, you’ll know exactly what tools to use to optimize your material handling, ensuring safety for your team and greater efficiency for your operations. Don’t let outdated methods hold you back — get the insights you need to lead safer, faster, and more efficient lifting practices today.

Have questions or need further information? Contact us directly. Check out our additional resources for even more bundle lifting solutions.

Transcript

Intro

– If you work in the construction industry, if you’re an iron worker, if you manufacture metal bar or pipes, load or offload ships, trains or containers, if you work with lumber, then you are probably familiar with rigging and lifting bundles. Most are probably using slings, be it chain, synthetic or wire rope. But what are some of the other options out there? How can your bundle lifting process be made more efficient to increase productivity and ultimately save money?

Understanding Bundle Lifting Options for Safety and Efficiency

– There’s a lot of different type of bundles out there and out of a lot of different types of materials. It could be a wood bundle, it could be a steel bundle, it could be a bundle of round bar, it could be a bundle of rails, it could be a bundle of plastic piping, it could be a bundle of pipe, it could be rebar, it could be round bar, it could be any type of a rolling mill. There’s a lot of different types of bundles and industries out there that handle bundles.

Traditionally, we see bundles being lifted with cranes and rigging. And when I say rigging, it’s typically a wire rope sling or a chain sling that is being choked around the bundle to pick it up and move it and place it to where it needs to be.

How to Use Slings, Chains, and Ropes for Bundle Lifting

Synthetic, wire rope, chain, each one of those will have its advantage and each one of those is going to have its disadvantage when picking up bundles. For instance, a synthetic sling that’s going to be very lightweight, easy to kind of fish through a bundle. Could be great for any type of a bundle that has rounded edges, but as soon as you start using a synthetic sling around a bundle that might have corners or sharp edges, you really start running the risk of cutting that sling.

A wire rope sling on the other hand, not going to be as lightweight and easy to handle as a synthetic sling, but again, you can run that through really anything with rounded edges. But again, if you start running it over sharp edges, you could start cutting strands of that wire rope and running into issues there.

You can use chain slings, you know, you can choke chain slings, very common in the industry. A downside to using the chain slings is they’re very heavy. They’re not as rigid as say a wire rope sling or even a thicker synthetic sling’s going to be. So trying to kind of fish that through and underneath a load is going to be very challenging.

Lifting bundles with slings, it’s a very standard practice out there. However, it can be a little bit of a dangerous practice simply because if the bundle is too long for the span of the sling, that the sling can reach, you really start to get some sag in your bundle. If it’s sagging in a happy face, you could really run the risk of dropping the bundle, having the bundle kind of fall out of a choke.

If it’s, you know, in a frowny face, again, you could run the risk of damaging your material.

You know, the scariest thing I’ve seen is somebody using hooks to pick up a bundle on the banding of the bundle and banding has no rating for lifting whatsoever. You’re not supposed to use, you know, steel banding or plastic banding as a lift point because that is not rated for any type of a holding capacity whatsoever.

Advanced Bundle Lifting Solutions: Beams, Tongs, and Automation

There’s a lot of different ways you can lift bundles. There’s bundle lifting beams, which again, will be used in conjunction with a different type of a sling, but it’s going to give you spans across larger bundles to be able to basket underneath of.

There’s bundle lifting tongs, which is a device, like a clam type device that’ll come in and kind of grab that bundle automatically.

And then there’s some even inventive type lifting devices out there that have feet that you’ll go down around the bundle and the feet will close underneath of the bundle to allow you to pick up that bundle safely without even having to have a person involved. Some of these devices can be engineered, so if you need to cut the bundles, you can pick it up and then cut the bundle while it’s inside of the device, so it’s a little more controlled of a bundle cut and then go set that cut bundle into the machine or wherever it needs to go as well. For bundles using that type of a lifter, they will need to be elevated off of the ground, whereas a lifting tong can pick a round bar bundle or a square bundle directly sitting off of the ground. But you would run into issues if you have multiple bundles kind of next to each other for a tong to be able to come in and grab a specific bundle.

Magnets are a common device out there that’s used to pick up bundles, but you have to be very careful when using magnets and picking bundles because you are still relying on banding of a bundle to hold that bundle together when lifting.

Lifting bundles with a forklift, we can engineer like a lifting tong that has fork pockets on it to use, but you always have to consult your fork truck manufacturer to make sure you’re not lifting too much of a load on it and you’re not getting too long out there. A lot of times trying to drive around with a 10, 12, 15 foot bundle hanging off the front of a tow motor could be very challenging and pose some definite safety concerns as opposed to, you know, being able to use an overhead crane where you’ll have more control.

How to Choose the Best Bundle Lifting Equipment for Your Facility

Deciding what the best bundle lifting device for your application is takes into consideration a few things. How often are you lifting the bundles? What environment are you pulling the bundles from or out of? How much clearance do you have around the bundles? How rigid it is? What’s the length of the bundle going to be and what’s the diameter of the bundle going to be?

Probably the biggest mistake I see around people when they’re choosing a bundle lifting device is not taking into consideration how the bundle acts, how rigid that bundle is, or what that bundle does once you start getting it under a load.

If you’re doing something on a construction site where you might be moving a bundle here or there from time to time, using slings to pick it might be the simplest solution. Or using some type of a lifting beam or basket beam to have multiple slings basketing the bundle to help hold it more rigid could be another great option.

Going with an engineered lifting device for bundle lifting is a great idea. A lot of times we’re able to not only improve the safety side of bundle lifting, but to help with efficiencies. For an example, if you typically have to send somebody in to run a sling underneath of a bundle or fish a sling under a bundle, not only are you putting them, you know, potentially in an unsafe environment, but that’s taking time. Somebody has to go in there, fish the sling in to not only put the sling on, but then once you place it, that same person would need to go in to be able to remove the slings.

The types of operations we see that would best benefit from an engineer device when we’re talking about bundle lifting is going to be anything where they’re trying to remove employees or stop employees from having to physically touch things. Anybody with a red line initiative around touching. Places that you need to pick a bundle out of that might have light curtains that are going to stop full machines if somebody goes in there that you could put a device into there to grab it.

Case Study: How Advanced Lifting Devices Improve Efficiency

There was an application that we were able to really improve the bundle lifting a customer was doing. They had a light curtain set up, they needed to get into that light curtain to be able to hook up the bundles and the procedure they had every time they had to break a light curtain was about a two minute procedure. And once they got into that light curtain, then they had to start hooking up their slings to the bundles. And all in all to just move one bundle of steel, it was probably taking them a good 10 minutes by the time they moved it.

Then they would just move it down the line, which was about 40 feet down the line and they would have to go through the same process to get rid of the bundle They’d have to break the light curtain, which would stop the machine from running, go in, unhook all the rigging, cut the bundle. By the time it took them to pick up a bundle and set the bundle down, it was probably a good 20 minute process and procedure.

We were able to come up with a device that had motorized arms that would open. It would allow them to just fly over top of the light curtain, never having to break it, drop over to the bundle that they wanted, actuate the feet, so the feet came together to support the bundle underneath of it. Lift it out of the light curtain, get it into a safe area where they could just walk down the lifter, safely cut the straps on the bundles, and then take that device, lift it over the next light curtain, set it down, open the feet, and remove the device off of it and carry on their way.

We went from like a twenty minute procedure for loading a bundle down to five to ten minute procedure, so really we cut the time in half and totally took the the human out of it.

Custom Bundle Lifting Solutions from Mazzella: What You Need to Know

Mazzella is here to help you with any type of a bundle lifting application, whether it’s small, big, simple, as easy as slings all the way up to an engineered lifting device. We’re here to make sure your lifting bundles safely and efficiently.

Get Expert Help for Safe and Efficient Bundle Lifting

– Whatever option you land on to best safely move bundles on your site or in your facility, Mazzella has what you need. Feel free to contact us with any questions and to discuss the solution that would best suit your operation. Links below.

If you found this video useful, informative, entertaining, or you just feel like being friendly, then hit that like button so we can get this information out to everyone who needs it. Subscribe and hit the bell so you never miss a video. If you have a question, drop it in the comments so we can get you an answer. Remember, safe rigging is smart rigging. My name is Ben, stay safe out there.

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In this video

0:00 – Intro

0:37 – Understanding Bundle Lifting Options for Safety and Efficiency

1:16 – How to Use Slings, Chains, and Ropes for Bundle Lifting

3:07 – Advanced Bundle Lifting Solutions: Beams, Tongs, and Automation

4:58 – How to Choose the Best Bundle Lifting Equipment for Your Facility

6:48 – Case Study: How Advanced Lifting Devices Improve Efficiency

8:17 – Custom Bundle Lifting Solutions from Mazzella: What You Need to Know

8:30 – Get Expert Help for Safe and Efficient Bundle Lifting

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Disclaimer: Any advice, graphics, images, and/or information contained herein are presented for general educational and information purposes and to increase overall safety awareness. It is not intended to be legal, medical, or other expert advice or services, and should not be used in place of consultation with appropriate industry professionals. The information herein should not be considered exhaustive and the user should seek the advice of appropriate professionals.