Manual chain hoist trolley or electric trolley

[shreyds9]

For items which require infrequent maintenance, can manual trolley hoist be suitable for lifting weight of more than 3 ton? My concern is the pull force required for manual trolleys. For capacities more than 3 ton, the force required is more than 30kg (~15 pound).

With increased force, do maintenance personnel find it comfortable to use manual chain hoist? If pull force is high, it may lead to personnel injury or back pain. Your feedback considering field experiences/ OSHA guidelines is appreciated.

 

[Dougt115]

Your conversion is backwards, 30kg ~ 60lbs.

Check if it is union or not they may have contractual load lifting regulations.

And 60 lbs would be an issue in most work locations. Especially if the item to lift is bulky or awkward.

 

[shreyds9]

Dougt115 thanks... conversion mistake. it should be 60 lbs. I suppose more than 60lbs would be an issue. Are you aware of any OSHA guideline or if standard practices wherein the pull force is limited to say 60 lbs or so.

 

[21121956]

Hello everybody:

The Code ASME B30.16-2007 Overhead Hoist (Underhung) deals with this matter. At the same time, you could Google the Hoist Manufacturers Institute (HMI), which using as a guide that ASME Code, has prepared a couple of leaflets (FREE DOWNLOAD) with the list of SHALL’S and SHALL NOT’S for a good safety practice.

El que no puede andar, se sienta.

 

[chicopee]

Doesn't UPS require their drivers to dead lift 70lbs? to require a 60lbs pull on a hoist chain so that a load can be raised should be a piece of cake.

 

[racookpe1978]

The pull on a vertical chainfall lifting 15 - 20 tons isn't 60 lbs. What "lift" do you anticipate picking up?

 

[chicopee]

It's all about mechanical advantage from his 30 kg (appx 60lbs) pull as stated in the OP.

 

[MintJulep]

It's not clear to me if the OP is questioning the pull on the chain that result in lifting force, or pulling the trolley with a suspended weight horizontally along the overhead beam.

 

[tbuelna]

Commercial chain hoists are designed to conform to OSHA requirements. A 3-ton chain hoist would not require unacceptable pulling effort from a single person. The hoists are designed with sufficient mechanical advantage for a single person to safely lift the rated load. However, it's a whole different question as whether it is safe to use a mobile gantry/A-frame and chain hoist to lift and move your 3-ton load. For example, will the load be balanced and stable when it is being moved?

I believe Cal-OSHA regulations normally limit the amount of weight a single person can lift un-aided from floor to chest height, to around 35lbs.

 

[chicopee]

Lifting chest high 35lbs does not have the same ergonomic motion than pulling down on a chain. A 175lbs man can easily pull down a chain hoist having a resistance of appx.66lbs.

 

[MikeHalloran]

The way I read it, the OP's question has to do with the difficulty of MOVING THE TROLLEY along a hoist beam with a load suspended on the hoist, not of operating the hoist to lift the load.

I have drawn infrequent-duty bridge cranes with a cathead and chain loop attached to a shaft between corresponding wheels on opposite trucks, for the purpose of driving the trucks, instead of pulling laterally on the hoist's chains, which is the remaining way to drive an unpowered bridge.

A brief search did not find any loose manually/chain powered trolleys, but did find several manually operated chain hoists equipped with manually chain driven trolleys, like this one:

http://www.grainger.com/product/HARRINGTON-Hoist-Trolley-6HJH4?functionCode=P2IDP2PCP

Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[racookpe1978]

I've seen one man, pulling one-handed, easily move a 36 foot, 36 inch diameter cooling tube bundle sideways down a chainfall-suspended overhead trolley.

The trolley hooks carry the load, the second chain moves the geared trolley down the overhead track. you need three other people to guide the tubesheet bundle into the heat exchanger, but they don't need to help the man moving the suspended load.

One millwright pulling a chainfall lifts and controls the load while rotating a 30,000 lbs CT cover assembly.

 

[shreyds9]

Thanks for all responses.

As MikeHalloran mentioned my question is about lifting as well as moving the trolley along hoist beam with suspended load.

I see one exp. from racookpe1978 wherein a huge load can be moved by a single person lifting as well as moving horizontally.

OSHA puts some limitations on pull required as tbuelna mentions 35 lb load. In this case it is lifting till the chest.

Will lifting to certain height or pulling horizontally be worst case? I suppose lifting might require more effort.

In the catalogue below pull force is mentioned on Page 4 for different tonnage lifting. I suppose if one has to pull the weight up if he applies his body weight he can lift it up.

http://www.indef.com/pdf/Corporate Brochure.pdf

 

[tbuelna]

Attached is a spec sheet for Yale chain hoists. The required chain pull force to lift the rated load of a 3-ton hoist is 85lbf.

I have actually used a 2-ton Yale trolley chain hoist attached to a mobile gantry A-frame, and I can say the chain pull force to move the geared trolley supporting a rated load along the gantry beam is far less than what the lift load required.

The reason we used a manual chain hoist was because we were using it to precisely position heavy components. The manual chain hoist provided much better feedback and control than an electric hoist would.