In a joint project between Elebia Autohooks and one of North America’s top suppliers of hot rolled steel bar products, five evo2 automatic hooks with load cell were mounted on a spreader beam at the company’s plant in order to load rebar steel bundles directly onto different “tricky” surfaces, such as train wagons, on a truck or just to simply move the bundles inside the warehouse.
Each steel bundle carries a tag with the total weight of every bundle and to compliment this interest in weight control all five safety hooks were equipped with load cells. With this feature linked to the eMAX remote control, the comparison of weight both from the tag and the load cell was confirmed in real time, therefore assuring the total weight displayed on the eMAX remote control matched the total on the tags of each rebar bundle. The load cell is fully integrated into the remote release hook and represents no increase in weight or dimensions of the unit. Besides load control with the indication of total weight and of each individual hook, the load cell also informs of overload and/or unbalanced weight with different types of alarms.
With this upgrade, the company is able to track both the productivity and activity of each hook. The loading operation is very quick, as chains with a master link are used to manually connect to the hook’s magnet. Once all master links are attached to the magnet, the crane operator remotely closes all five safety hooks and lifts up the bundles.
Meanwhile, the automatic hooks help eliminate the risk of accidents when releasing the load. Previously different operators had to get into the train wagon or jump onto the truck’s bed to help with the manual release. With the automatic release, this dangerous operation is no longer necessary, and the bundles can be placed on any surface remotely.