Solving Eye-to-the-Sky Coil Lifting: A Versatile Device Solution

Intro

– But instead of the coils of steel being in the vertical position, they were laying down in the horizontal position. So what we had to do was come up with a device that would apply the correct amount of pressure to both the outside and the inside that would keep those that coil bound together, but at the same time, not damage the coil. My name’s Dan Sherwood. I’m a Below-the-Hook Product Specialist based out of our Cleveland, Ohio location.

– My name is Dan Fisher. I’m a Design Engineer with the Below-the-Hook group. And on this specific project, I was tasked with designing this lifter based off a design that the customer already had.

The Challenges of Horizontal Coil Lifting Explained

– So the situation we came into in this one was one where the customer was lifting coils of steel, but instead of the coils of steel being in the vertical position, they were laying down in the horizontal position, which is a much more challenging pick to do. There’s fewer options out there to do something like that. Again, most of those are designed to kind of go in and help stand that coil up to move it. Whereas this customer wanted to leave the coils in that horizontal position. So what we needed to come up with was something that we could go in and grab that coil, pick it up and move it. But the problem is as it’s a coil of steel, if you just kind of pick up and push on the ends, as you kind of lift it up, you’re going to have a telescoping effect where the center of the coil can fall out. So what we had to do was come up with a device that would apply the correct amount of pressure to both the outside and the inside that would keep that coil bound together, but at the same time not damage the coil.

Enhancing Below-the-Hook Devices for Coil Lifting

– It was determined that they wanted something very similar to what they had. And with Dan Sherwood’s experience as well as other engineers on the team, we were able to put together something that replicated what they had while also giving them a brand new lifter that they can use in the future.

Design Insights: Adaptable Tongs for Various Coil Sizes

– Some of the challenges we encountered were having a different outside diameter and inside diameter coils and having the tong be able to work for a couple different size coils. The engineers got really creative with some adjustability features in the tong to allow us to pick up different size coils on it.

– Definitely a lot more moving parts. A lot of tong arms moving different directions all at the same time, whereas a lot of the stuff we do is just a standard lifting beam with no moving parts. This definitely took the moving part to the extreme.

What is the process of designing a below-the-hook lifting device?

– To get this device designed it required a site visit onto the customer’s facility to gather a bunch of measurements.

– We had not much to go off, just a couple pictures and a few dimensions. Then from there I looked at the pictures and kind of eyeballed how big the things should be while also making sure it fulfilled the calculations required by BTH-1.

How does this tong lift horizontal coils of different sizes?

So here’s the tong in the relaxed state. The auto latch is engaged, so they’ll drop this down on top of the coil. Whenever it’s sitting on top of the coil, the auto latch will disengage as the crane hook is pulling up here. And as it pulls up, these inner pads will move out and the outer pads will move in, which will result in the tong in this state right here. So at this point, the crane hook will be picking up from the top and these inner pads will be pushing along the inside of the coil. These outer pads will be pushing on the outside and that pressure will allow the tong to lift the whole coil up off of wherever they’re picking it up from.

Who would find this horizontal coil tong useful?

– Any coil handling customer out there, a lot of times it’s kind of the narrower coils that they’re picking that this would be great for to kind of look at using it in.

Mazzella’s Custom Design Process for Below-the-Hook Devices

We’re not just looking to sell them a product, we’re looking to form a partnership with them throughout the entire build of a project. It’s not, “Hey, give us the information. We’re going to give you a product.” It’s, “Hey, walk me through your process. Tell me what you got to do. Tell me what, you know, your struggles are, what you’d like to see out of this.” We’re going to partner with you guys to ultimately try to give you guys the best working solution. Something that’s going to make your life easier, your jobs faster, safer, and not somebody that was just going to build them something, drop it off and say, here you go. Somebody that was going to be in it for the long haul with ’em.