Everything to Know About Heavy Lifting

With all the latest technological advancements sweeping across the construction sector, construction machines and equipment have become highly intuitive, intelligent and sophisticated. Nowadays, new construction techniques and methods are being implemented on construction sites. This enables projects to be executed in a timely and cost-efficient manner. Undoubtedly, heavy lifting equipment has greatly aided the boom of the construction industry in recent times. This is partly due to the continuous evolution of hydraulic jack lifts for construction. Today, the demand for hydraulic lifting equipment has increased due to the variety of purposes they serve. Most construction companies prefer to use heavy lifting equipment because of the myriad benefits they offer. Of these, heavy lifting equipment safety is a major one because it creates a safe and secure environment for construction workers. A number of other industries utilize hydraulic heavy lifting equipment including oil, mining, steel, transport, roads, gas and construction.

What is Heavy Lifting Equipment?

Heavy lifting supplies are highly useful for executing projects that require dealing with heavy loads. It is important in order to achieve the perfect efficiency for your project. Various industrial construction and plant maintenance projects require companies to deal with the lifting and moving of heavy and large components. Some examples of situations where heavy lifting is employed include the construction of steel tanks, heavy installations, caisson launching, and more. While it is important to ensure the safety of the load, it is also essential to safeguard the place and people involved. Given below are some of the benefits of using heavy lifting equipment.

Benefits of Using Heavy Lifting Equipment

Construction companies execute many complex processes while building a structure. The amount of time and effort required in the construction of a single framework is huge. These companies make use of different kinds of equipment during the construction process. One of the newest technologies used includes hydraulic heavy lifting equipment, which plays a key role in making processes faster and easier. With the increase in demand for hydraulic lifting equipment supplies, construction companies should consider the following benefits:

Manual Load Reduction

When multiple activities need to be carried out simultaneously, hydraulic heavy lifting equipment makes tasks easier with the reduction in manpower. They are preferred over cranes and hoists to lift objects against gravity relatively easily. This reduces the manual work required along with the strain on construction workers.

Comfort, Safety and Flexibility

Construction projects are generally long and tedious, requiring heavy lifting supply and delivery of materials. Heavy lifting equipment is considered a safer and comfortable option for workers because they make operations easier. With the different kinds of models used in hydraulic lifting, workers are also granted flexibility in terms of usage. Depending on the requirement of the project, structures can be easily reassembled and refitted without any hassle. The multipurpose equipment used also helps to increase the lifting capacity.

Cost Effectiveness and Efficiency

Typically, the cost of manual labour for lifting heavy loads is pretty steep. With heavy lifting equipment, the need for physical manpower is almost eliminated. Being durable and sturdy, the equipment also doesn’t require too much maintenance. Hence, the use of such high-quality equipment is advised as it is long-lasting and reduces costs with regular servicing and maintenance. Such equipment can be used for carrying out multiple processes and is worth the initial investment made.

Customization for Any time, Anywhere Use

Heavy lifting equipment companies provide machinery and equipment for construction sites. Being highly customizable, they can be easily repurposed to carry out various on-site jobs. Equipment such as cranes, forklifts and telehandlers come with several types of attachments and varied tools that can be removed and fixed without too much hassle. Moreover, this equipment can be used in all kinds of environments; this includes outdoor use on construction sites as well as indoor use in warehouses. The wide range of models of lifting equipment allows for rough use in indoor and outdoor site locations.

Types of Equipment for Heavy Lifting

It is important to choose the right kind of construction equipment that improves productivity while reducing the time and effort required to execute a project. Hence, selecting the appropriate size and type of construction equipment is important. They must have a combination of versatile characteristics like a vast lifting capacity with a long reach along with flexible configuration, quick mobilization, as well as a relatively small footprint to provide significant improvements in construction and turnaround efficiency. It is also mandatory for construction planners, supervisors and site managers to possess in-depth knowledge about the features of the major types of equipment most commonly used in construction. Listed below are the main equipment used for loading and transportation purposes on-site.

Forklifts

What are forklifts and what do they do? These powerful industrial trucks are used to lift and move heavy materials across short distances. They are indispensable as they offer multiple applications across various industry sectors. Forklifts use rear wheel steering to improve their ability to manoeuver tight corners. Through the use of hydraulics controlled by levers, they employ steel forks to lift and transport material. One of the most common uses of a forklift is to transport materials stored on pallets.

Crane

Undoubtedly, one of the most well-known examples of heavy lifting equipment is a crane. So, how does a crane work? It uses a combination of one or more simple machines in order to carry heavy loads and material across construction sites. Being highly efficient heavy lifting machines, they are most commonly used in the construction and transportation industry for the unloading and loading of cargo freight and movement of heavy materials. They are manufactured in a variety of models that can be customized for specific purposes. Not only do cranes vary in their applications, but also in their sizes. Small to medium-sized cranes are used in workshops and garages while towering cranes are most often seen on the job sites of skyscrapers.

Telehandlers

They are also known as teleporters, telescope handlers, or more commonly, boom lifts. While it is similar to a forklift in appearance, the application of a telehandler is more like that of a crane. It comes with an attached telescopic cylinder or a boom, that can easily extend upwards and forwards from the machine. The operators of the machines can attach additional accessories for heavy lifting such as winches, pallet forks, buckets or muck grabs. Telehandlers get their increased versatility from the use of a single articulating boom.

Rod climbers

What are rod climbers? Rod climbers are flexible equipment that can easily handle large lifting from anywhere between 12-400 tons. They are highly useful in demanding environments that require a great degree of precision along with the placement or removal of heavy loads. Such climbers come equipped with parallel hydraulic cylinders that can be mounted between something known as grip-jaw heads. Rod climbers are used for moving loads upwards, downwards and sideways.

Strand climbers

This type of heavy lifting system consists of strands that are useful for lifting, lowering or pulling a device. Thanks to strand climbers, devices can be lowered for temporary mobile use on different locations such as building sites and repair or installation processes within the industry or construction sites. This type of heavy lifting equipment is perfect for environments that require easily adaptable and flexible equipment.

Tips for Cost-Effective Heavy Lifting

Construction businesses can choose to purchase or lease heavy lifting equipment based on the specific needs of the project. Heavy lifting equipment safety is a key consideration in this situation. Considering the significant investment involved, here are some tips for safe and cost-effective heavy lifting on sites.

• Make an accurate estimate of the load to be lifted and the required machinery for the operation to avoid unnecessary expenditure

• Ensure that the heavy lifting machinery is regularly maintained and repairs are carried out to prevent any problems or incur additional unforeseen expenditure

• Gather sufficient information about product specifications and machinery you want to invest in from heavy lifting equipment companies as well as through research

• Maintain the highest safety standards on the construction site to avoid injuries and accidents. Ensure that workers are well-equipped with proper safety gear like glasses, head protection, safety boots etc. Remember, safety comes first!

• If you are unsure about which heavy lifting equipment to invest in, hire professional services to help you avoid purchasing incorrect equipment

• Through the use of high-quality machinery to move loads, construction companies can avoid the complexities, time and cost required to dismantle, reassemble and move large and heavy equipment in a cost-effective manner.

Maximizing Uptime for Equipment

Heavy lifting equipment plays a key role in plant maintenance as well as industrial construction projects, ranging from petrochemical plants and wind farms to civil construction and major mining operations. All across the wide spectrum of industrial facilities and machinery, heavy lifting support is required for expansions, upgrades and new construction. Additionally, heavy lifting capacity is also essential in rapid response operations in emergencies and scheduled facility maintenance. The most important factor to consider in all this is the safety aspect when it comes to the machine operators and the machinery itself. Safeguarding the people involved, the load and any equipment or adjacent structures is paramount. They must be organized in such a way as to achieve optimal project efficiency and maximize uptime. Since heavy lifting operations form a critical element of any construction project, their efficient execution is essential to the project’s budget and schedule. By finding ways to shorten the critical path through carefully executed and planned lifting operations and production on or ahead of schedule, maximum uptime can be accomplished. A reduction in the time to market or minimize downtime, construction companies can realize an optimum return on their investment.

Advanced New Technology in Heavy Lifting

So how can companies determine the right tools for heavy lifting jobs? Here what you need to know during the process of selecting lifting equipment for your business. When moving a heavy load, today’s heavy lifting technologies offer a vast wealth of cost savings and operational efficiencies over the traditional lifting technologies. Movers and lifters depend on the ingenuity of hydraulic technology for hoisting heavy loads. Moreover, hydraulic heavy lifting equipment is often the only feasible solution when it comes to height and width-constrained spaces. Through the use of modern heavy lifting equipment such as cranes, forklifts, telehandlers and more, construction companies can increase productivity,  improve their bottom line and facilitate business expansion. By understanding the heavy lifting total cost of ownership and means of growing businesses using new technology, construction companies can definitely use the construction sector boom to their advantage.

Experts Guide to Advanced Lifting Technology

The capability of safely moving large, heavy loads forms an integral part of industrial manufacturing. Naturally, such enormous loads cannot be relocated manually, hence lifts and hoists can be utilized to shift materials to new locations. When using this equipment and machinery, there are significant safety issues that need to be considered. This is essential from the aspect of the devices, operators as well as workers in the vicinity. Staying up-to-date on the latest trends and developments in the ever-changing construction industry is paramount. This can be accomplished by doing research and consulting heavy lifting equipment companies and browsing expert guides on advances lifting technology. One of the most valuable technologies that have emerged recently is radio frequency identification (RFID). It utilizes a small disc or chip that contains all the information on a particular product. By scanning the chip, construction companies can understand everything from the date of manufacture of the equipment, certifications, history of initial inspections, replacement parts and much more. As more and more heavy lifting equipment manufacturers design and develop innovative products, companies must make an extra effort to stay abreast of new technology including ongoing education, conduction of regular inspection and safety training sessions and more.