Why APPI:  Rusty Melancon, a Contract Specialist, with Oil States Skagit Smatco LLC, contacted us during his search for a 24 VDC hoist to use with a davit mounted on oil platform tower crane to lift and lower tower the crane operators’ tools and equipment.

We were able to meet his line pull and speed requirements of 1,000 lbs. with an average line speed of 20 fpm over a travel distance of 95’ by changing the gear ratio in one of our Columbia “HF” series hoists.

The hoist features a continuous duty DC motor and a spring applied, electrically released coupler brake along with OLI (overload interrupt) protection to prevent catastrophic failure in the event of a stall condition.

Matching the hoist to this application included narrowing the drum to ensure proper fleet angle for spooling the wire rope.

Please contact us if you would like more information about this particular continuous duty DC hoist or any of our other products and services.

Allied Power Products, Inc. has specialized in providing winches, hoists, capstans and cranes to meet our customers’ specific application requirements for more than 30 years.

The post Columbia Continuous Duty DC Hoist Lifts Tools and Equipment appeared first on Allied Power Products, Inc..

Why APPI:  Testing an aircraft engine assembly is a critical operation required to approve an aircraft for flight.  Due to their size, weight and movable parts this work is always a challenge and that challenge increases when the testing must be conducted in remote locations without shore power.

After being contracted to build a trailer for this purpose, Michael Knight, president of Knight Aerospace, turned to APPI for assistance in configuring an engine test stand hoist to meet the requirements of this application that could operate off the DC power source on the trailer.  It also needed to be capable of operating on a continuous duty basis as well as be equipped with an electrically released, load holding brake.

We determined one our Columbia HR3G hoists equipped with a 1 HP continuous duty DC motor and brake with the drum grooved for 12mm diameter wire rope was the correct choice for this for this application.

Michael came to us for assistance three years ago on a similar project with a different type of hoist.  We are glad we were able to help him again with this custom test stand hoist.

Please contact us if you would like more information about this test stand hoist or any of our other products and services.

Allied Power Products, Inc. has specialized in providing winches, hoists, capstans and cranes to meet our customers’ specific application requirements for more than 30 years.

The post Columbia Test Stand Hoist appeared first on Allied Power Products, Inc..

Why APPI:  Given the endless wear and tear caused by hundreds of pigs putting their weight and “signatures” on it, Arnold Family Farms, Inc. is hired to replace the flooring in pig barns on an ongoing basis.  It’s one of those tasks that Mike Rowe might have tried out as it’s a thankless, labor intensive job.

The flooring comes in a wide range of types and materials but the constant with all of it is that it’s heavy, bulky and hard to handle.  To help reduce the time and labor required for these jobs, one of the rigs they use has a mobile base with a truck crane on it that was equipped with a 12 volt DC hoist.

Although this unit worked well for them, the original equipment hoist motor simply was not able to perform at the level they required and replacing the motors was costly and time consuming.

After reviewing the application with owner Mike Arnold, we provided him with one of our Columbia HG1500 DC electric hoists powered by a continuous duty DC motor.  The first unit cost was quickly amortized by the time saved and the production gained as it hasn’t required replacement or service since it was purchased.

Please contact us if you would like more information about this DC hoist or any of our other products and services.

Allied Power Products, Inc. has specialized in providing winches, hoists, capstans and cranes to meet our customers’ specific application requirements for more than 30 years.

The post Columbia DC Hoist Helps Give Pigs Firm Footing appeared first on Allied Power Products, Inc..

Why APPI:  Greg Lovine, the Project Manager for Subzero was researching winch and hoist manufacturers for a unit that would work in the recovery vans they were building for the City of New York when he found the strap hoist we provided to load bariatric patients into ambulances.  As it turned out, this unit was an ideal match for the Chief Medical Examiner’s needs to be able to move deceased individuals into their refrigerated trucks.

As is true with many of the applications for which we supply product this is not a glamorous type of work but it is a necessary municipal function. The direct beneficiaries of these winches are the operators and drivers who will be relieved from the arduous task of moving very heavy loads into their vans for transport.

Please contact us if you would like more information about this particular recovery van hoist or any of our other products and services.

Allied Power Products, Inc. has specialized in providing winches, hoists, capstans and cranes to meet our customers’ specific application requirements for more than 30 years.

The post NYC Chief Examiner Enlists Columbia Van Hoist To Transport the Departed appeared first on Allied Power Products, Inc..

Why APPI:  The Corpus Christi Celanese plant utilizes several rain water catchment devices that immediately divert runoff if any form of contamination is detected in the water running through them.

This is accomplished by hoisting a set of outlet pipes to stop the flow of water until it is confirmed it is safe to let it drain again.

Although there are several of these devices at the plant a new installation gave Celanese the opportunity to update and upgrade the drive system on their pipe hoist.

After a long and frustrating search, Celanese found us and we were able to quickly provide them with a custom solution for their application.

Given the importance of this system, it utilizes 12 VDC power from a 115 VAC circuit fed through a rectifier, which is backed up by a heavy-duty 12 VDC battery.

The new hoist drive system has the same horsepower as the original but its more efficient design provides more torque and speed.

Rolando Ramirez, Senior I&E Specialist for the Corpus Christi plant, says that as they add more systems and upgrade their existing ones, the hoist drive system we provided them will act as their new standard for replacements.

Please contact us if you would like more information about this particular hoist drive system or any of our other products and services.

Allied Power Products, Inc. has specialized in providing winches, hoists, capstans and cranes to meet our customers’ specific application requirements for more than 30 years.

The post Columbia Hoist Drive System Diverts Contaminated Runoff appeared first on Allied Power Products, Inc..

Why APPI:  Finding a way to get burial vaults weighing up to 4,000 lbs. on and off Bicke’s flatbed delivery truck was complicated because there was no auxiliary power on the truck. However, it was equipped with an I-beam crane rail supported by stanchions at the front and rear of the bed. The limited headroom and lack of power precluded using a typical hoist and overhead trolley.

Our solution was a one-ton capacity 12 VDC hoist used in conjunction with one of our Columbia “Hammerhead” style overhead trolleys. The hoist was deck mounted next to the back of the cab and directly under the crane I-Beam. The wire rope is reeved from the hoist up through a vertical lead sheave under the beam and then through the overhead trolley sheaves and hooked to the anchor point at the outboard end of the I-Beam. This arrangement allows the vaults to be lifted until they clear the top of the truck bed and then move down the I-Beam to their transport position while remaining at a constant height off the deck.

The use of the hammerhead trolleys doubles the line pull at the hook. As a result, Bickes used a 12 VDC hoist that did not overload the electrical system on their truck.

Our Columbia Hammerhead trolleys are available in standard capacities of 1, 3, 7.5, and 10 tons. Manual positioning is standard, but chain-driven and powered options are available for indoor or outdoor use.

Please contact us if you would like more information about this particular overhead trolley system or any of our other products and services.

Allied Power Products, Inc. has specialized in providing winches, hoists, capstans, and cranes to meet our customers’ specific application requirements for more than 30 years.

The post Columbia Overhead Trolley With Hammerhead Design Solves Burial Vault Handling Problems appeared first on Allied Power Products, Inc..

Why APPI:  Moving containers filled with hazardous materials is a complicated challenge that is only compounded when it occurs in an explosive atmosphere.   EHS Solutions LLC specializes in the manufacture of custom material handling equipment, and when they required a HAZLOC DC hoist on one of their specially designed hazardous material transfer carts, they turned to us for assistance.

For this project, EHS Solutions needed to minimize the mast height on the cart as well as power the HAZLOC DC hoist with a motor that met the stringent requirements of the National Electric Code (NEC) for a Class 1 Division 2 Group D explosive environment.  To help reduce both height and potential sparking, we provided a strap-equipped hoist and met the motor requirements by providing a compliant DC motor that is powered by an on-board rechargeable 24 VDC battery – making the unit self-contained, fully mobile, and non-sparking.

Please contact us if you would like more information about this particular HAZLOC DC hoist or any of our other products and services.

Allied Power Products, Inc. has specialized in providing winches, hoists, capstans, and cranes to meet our customers’ specific application requirements for more than 30 years.

The post Columbia HAZLOC DC Hoist Provides Lift for Transport Cart appeared first on Allied Power Products, Inc..

Why APPI:  When the hoist system provided with this light bank did not function properly, the owner turned to APPI for a solution. The endpoint was four custom, dual DC motor hoists with “bulls-eye” fairleads explicitly designed for this application. With this new light bank hoist system, photographers can lift, lower, tilt, and pan the 30 foot by 10 foot light bank over extremely large products.

With the DC electric hoist system functioning properly, it’s now effortless for photographers to quickly and accurately set the light bank to create lighting setups that would otherwise be impossible. The art director who oversaw this project says getting the hoist problem solved is huge to him. He is directly responsible for the timely completion of more than 22,000 magazine-quality photos per year.

Please contact us if you would like more information about this particular light bank hoist or any of our other products and services.

Allied Power Products, Inc. has specialized in providing winches, hoists, capstans, and cranes to meet our customers’ specific application requirements for more than 30 years.

The post Photography Studio Light Bank Hoist appeared first on Allied Power Products, Inc..

Why  APPI: Celtech Corporation has for years provided a custom aircraft DC electric maintenance hoist  – for all military branches – used to remove and re-install jet and turbo-prop aircraft engines using only the aircraft power supply. This portable hoist assembly is used worldwide. As the DC electric maintenance hoist is operated in a wide variety of remote locations, the unit has to rely on the aircraft’s 24 VDC power supply to operate.

Celtech Corporation turned to Allied Power Products, Inc. and our Columbia Winches and Hoists to create a hoist that has become the industry standard for all military branches.

Celtech Corporation provides custom controls and test equipment.

Please contact us if you would like more information about this particular DC electric maintenance hoist or any of our other products and services.

Allied Power Products, Inc. has specialized in providing winches, hoists, capstans and cranes to meet our customers’ specific application requirements for more than 30 years.

The post Columbia DC Electric Maintenance Hoist appeared first on Allied Power Products, Inc..

Why APPI: Although some areas on our planet remain largely unexplored, NASA is moving on to bigger and better discoveries in our solar system. By utilizing robots and rovers, they gather data to understand Earth’s celestial neighbors better. The highest on the list of priorities is the long-held hope for a better understanding of Mars, as it appears to be potentially inhabitable and is of terrestrial nature, not dissimilar from the Earth.

MDA of Richmond, British Columbia was asked to examine the possibility of an alternative rover configuration as heavier and larger rovers are limited in the terrain they can traverse and are in danger of becoming entrapped in the sandy soil of Mars.  This is how the Mars Spirit rover became immobilized.

With that goal, MDA designed a prototype package for NASA, including the micro Kapvik rover tethered to a larger rover with a DC electric recovery winch.

The specifications on this particular project were very exact. It can’t be fixed at 50 million miles from Earth if something goes wrong. To simulate the performance of the micro-rover in Mars-like conditions (rocks, sand, and freezing temps), MDA decided to test the concept on one of Earth’s deserts.

Allied Power Products Inc. (APPI) in Beaverton, OR, has a track record of creating job-specific winch and hoist solutions. Hence, MDA’s Jakub Brelski turned to them for their assistance with their DC electric hoist requirement. Due to the project’s technical specifications, experience and expertise were the primary criteria by which the selection was made. In addition, this job would be an exacting custom build, so a good supplier was of tremendous value to MDA.

This project’s unique aspect was APPI’s AutoAdvance Line Spooler (AALS) system that would solve bird nesting issues and guarantee perfect spooling each time. The focus of the design is a retainer around the primary spooler sheave and a unique drum design that prevents the rope from entangling and foiling a multi-million dollar mission. This AALS technology also allowed the integration of other special features, such as a highly accurate load cell to monitor line tension. Also present was an electric encoder that converted revolutions into pulses to calculate line speed and payout distance.

The gearbox utilized synthetic oil specifically designed to perform in low temperatures. Also of note was the size of the recovery winch at only 14 kg, with a drum that was less than 6″ wide. These small dimensions are critical as space, and weight constraints demand compact size on interplanetary missions where fuel capacity and use are at a premium.

Mr. Brelski has indicated that the winch test went well and appeared to be a promising approach for attaching the smaller vehicle to the larger parent rover. Although still in the planning phases, if NASA selects MDA to deliver the micro-rover package for its next mission to Mars, it will be reassured in knowing that APPI had a hand in providing this reliable solution.

Please contact us if you would like more information about this particular DC electric recovery winch system or any of our other products and services.

Allied Power Products, Inc. has specialized in providing winches, hoists, capstans, and cranes to meet our customers’ specific application requirements for more than 30 years.

The post DC Electric Recovery Winch for Mars Rover appeared first on Allied Power Products, Inc..