What Are the Service Needs of Elebia Automatic Hooks?

Intro

If you’re thinking about purchasing an Elebia hook, you probably have a lot of questions. How do you maintain it? Can it stand up to an extremely harsh environment? What if it breaks? Today Elebia hook certified service technician Cody, answers the questions you have about the care and maintenance of your hook.

How to properly maintain your Elebia hook

Cody Mathis, I’ve been servicing the Elebia product for 10 years. Roughly got probably 10,000 services under my belt at this point. We’re the sole service and are the sole service center in the United States and North America for the Elebia Auto Hook. Housekeeping, so to say, it’s blowing the unit out, off, cleaning the magnet regularly, greasing the top link, the basket, just making sure the magnet and all of your openings here to where the hook moves up and down, it’s free of debris. Taking a pneumatic air hose, blow it out, clean the battery case out, make sure your batteries are stored properly.

How often do Elebia hooks need to be inspected and serviced?

Inspections are on an annual basis. We recommend the end user send the hook back to us on an annual basis for full tear-down, reassembly and repair if necessary. And then we recertify by load testing.

Inspecting your Elebia hook before use

As part of a daily routine, a daily inspection, pre-use inspection, you’d want to go through and look at all your lift points. Make sure there’s no visible wear, wear in the top link, wear in the hook, functionality, run it through a function test. Make sure it opens and closes. Making sure that your hook openings are free of debris, your magnet’s free of debris. Making sure your battery’s fully charged before you start your day.

What are the Elebia hook’s most commonly serviced parts?

The centrifugal clutch. When we get one unit back for inspection, for an annual inspection, we automatically swap the clutch out to prevent premature wear the next time it goes in the field. If the clutch fails or begins to fail, it will start showing signs. If it starts showing signs, it means the hook will not fully open or close on its own. You can go through a couple of measures by hand as pushing and pulling on the hook to see if it moves. If it does, you’re starting to show signs of clutch failure. Call me immediately. Schedule a service, get it in so we can get it back to you.

How available are the replacement parts for Elebia hooks?

Availability of replacement parts. We at Mazzella, we stock all replacement components. We keep a stock level on all components for these auto hooks even from if you want to swap out the configuration to something different, we can do that. The serviceable parts on the inside, we can do that. Replacement hooks, magnets, batteries, buttons, and circuit boards.

How do Elebia hooks stand up to extreme and harsh environments?

There’s really no difference between environments other than the housekeeping, making sure the hook is free of debris. They might show signs of heat wear, which just means the paint starts to fade. You might start seeing some of the faces of the battery starting to melt or deform and the button. If a customer has more say mill grime in their facility, and then there’s a wet environment, so let’s say your more northern regions, you’ll start to see more caking of mill dust. Again, as long as you blow it out before every shift, you’re fine.

How are Elebia hooks certified to meet OSHA compliance?

These Elebia auto hooks fall under ASME B30.10 and B30.20. When a unit comes in for an annual inspection, we recertify that by load testing.

How can you get your Elebia hook serviced?

If you have a request to have one serviced, Mazzella offers full sales to service, spare parts. You would send it to our Nashville location. In the United States, to my knowledge, there is no one else that can certifiably service these hooks. Experience is what what led me into being certified with servicing and repairing these auto hooks, working through changes over the years just to upgrade and be able to change the… Reconfigure the unit to make it fit this application in the steel industry better. The hooks were originally designed for ports, the port industry with super sack spreader beans. Mazzella implemented the hooks into the steel industry and continued to do so.

What is the service turnaround time for Elebia hooks?

Typically, the turnaround time from the day that I receive it from the customer is a week. Depending on if it needs a complete overhaul, that may take a couple of weeks. It does take quite a few hours to completely re-overhaul one to make sure that it’s put together properly.

How long will an Elebia hook last?

The parts are replaceable. If your top link wears, your bottom hook wears, any component on this that wears, it can be replaced, it can continue its life. I mean, it may get some new components. There’s a couple dozen units that I’ve had in the field for 10 years. I’ve serviced them every year, done the annuals on them every year. They last. You’re going to have your clutch wear. You’re going to have your battery wear, you’re going to have your component wear, but they can be serviced. No matter what the part is on the hook, it can be replaced. It’s worth the investment to buy one.

How can you learn more about Elebia hooks?

Elebia hooks are a long-lasting, relatively maintenance-free safe tool that you can use to keep your workers away from a load. Contact Mazzella’s lifting and rigging division to learn more. 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 and stay safe out there.