Customer: International Marine Flotation Systems (IMFS)

Location: Delta, BC Canada

Hoist Model: Columbia HL9000-2A17-L-02

Performance:

• Line Pull: 9,000 pounds
• Line Speed: 10 feet per minute
• Power Source: 230 VAC / Single Phase / 60 Hz

Special Features: Custom controls, water-tight hoist housing, radio remote control

Why APPI:

International Marine Flotation Systems (IMFS) approached Allied Power Products, Inc. (APPI) with a unique challenge: to design a lift system for seaplane maintenance that could operate efficiently in both air and water environments. The result was an innovative floating platform that transforms from a square to an “H” shape, with two 32-foot by 20-foot ramps that submerge to lift seaplanes weighing up to 10,000 pounds.

APPI’s solution centered around the Columbia HL9000-2A17-L-02 AC electric hoist, specifically engineered for this marine application.

Key features of this float plane lift system include:

1. Dual Columbia HL9000 hoists per ramp, providing a combined lifting capacity of 18,000 pounds.
2. Water-tight boxes housing the hoists below deck level, ensuring safety and longevity of the equipment.
3. 5/8″ wire ropes designed for marine environments, kept clear of personnel, equipment, and aircraft.
4. CSA-rated 3 HP brake motors for reliable performance in demanding conditions.
5. CUL-listed control enclosure with both local and radio remote control options.
6. Selector switch allowing for individual or simultaneous operation of each hoist pair.

This custom-designed system offers IMFS and their clients several benefits:

• Efficient maintenance procedures for seaplanes
• Easy dewatering of floats
• Safe and controlled loading and unloading of aircraft
• Versatility in handling various seaplane models up to 10,000 pounds

By implementing APPI’s Columbia float plane lift system, IMFS has significantly improved their seaplane maintenance capabilities. The system’s innovative design and robust construction ensure safe, efficient operations in the challenging marine environment.

For more information about this float plane lift system or any of APPI’s other specialized marine and aviation products and services, please contact Allied Power Products, Inc. With over 30 years of experience in providing custom winches, hoists, and lift systems for unique applications, APPI continues to be a trusted partner in the marine and aviation industries.

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Why  APPI: 

It was mid-afternoon at the Umm Qasr Naval Base on the southern tip of Iraq. Rick Fedrick, a seasoned project manager for Weston Solutions of West Chester, Pennsylvania, watched intently as a 90-foot Iraqi Coastal Defense Force (ICDF) patrol boat rose slowly out of the Persian Gulf on a steel platform. Although he had become acclimated to the 117 degree heat, he now says he was “sweating a little” because his and Weston’s reputations were riding on the ten slim pieces of wire rope lifting the vessel.

Fedrick arrived at Umm Qasr in January of 2004 and took charge of the rebuilding effort of that facility as contracted to Weston. Within three months, using local contractors and laborers, he had built two barracks, a dining hall, a classroom, and a warehouse. Based on that success, Fedrick had the opportunity to bid on removing and rebuilding a boat lift destroyed during the invasion of Iraq in March of 2003. Having the lift operational was identified by the Iraqi Ministry of Defense and the Coalition Provisional Authority as crucial to fulfill their mission to counter smuggling, terrorism, and piracy. In addition, continued maintenance for the five patrol boats in the ICDF was essential to this goal.

After removing the 250 tons of twisted steel remaining from the old destroyed lift platform, The challenge would be getting a multiple hoist system in place that would meet his 1,000-ton capacity requirement. Fredrick knew this would be more challenging than erecting buildings as a naval architect. In addition to the saltwater atmosphere, sand, and extreme heat that went with the location, the system he was responsible for specifying needed to be safe and reliable for the ICDF crews as they were operating it long-term.

Given his experience with the local contractors he had worked with on the building projects, Fedrick felt he could handle rebuilding the lift platform itself. But, as he said, “Hoists are not my area of expertise.” So, based on Weston’s previous experience with Allied Power Products, Inc. (APPI) in Beaverton, Oregon, Fedrick contacted their president, Bob Peterson, and described his requirements. Fedrick says the reply from Peterson was simple, “Tell me exactly what you need, and we’ll provide you with a system that meets those requirements.”

To use as much of the existing lift structure as possible, Fedrick specified ten hoists with a total capacity of 1,000 tons. However, Fedrick also added the caveat that after traveling 32 feet vertically, the platform could be no more than 1/16th of an inch out of position over its 265-foot length.

APPI proposed the following solution to Fedrick:

• a multiple hoist system that included the AC electric hoists
• complete motor controls
• ten load blocks with eight parts of line
• wire rope spooling compensators
• the wire rope
• electrical wire for power and controls

Even the mounting bolts for the hoists were included – Fedrick says the only thing Peterson did not offer to include was his on-site adviser services.

The contract was awarded to Weston to rebuild the ship lift, and in turn, APPI received a  purchase order contract for the synchronized multiple hoist system. In December of 2005, Fedrick and Champak Sadhu, Weston’s lead mechanical engineer, made a trip to Beaverton, where APPI had laid out the entire system for familiarization and run testing. After acceptance, the whole system was loaded into three containers and sent by sea to Umm Qasr.

Fedrick and his crews started working to remove and rebuild the old platform sitting in the water between the two wings of the ship lift dock. At the same time, they were also designing and building the ten lift towers and hoist mounting pads in anticipation of the arrival of the containers from APPI. Without the benefit of any form of fabrication facility, the work was completed entirely on-site just before the hoisting equipment arrived.

After bolting down ten hoists, hanging ten pairs of load blocks, and reeving ten lengths of wire rope, the controls were connected, and system testing began. Platform testing continued for the next month for both gross and off-center loading. Fedrick said, “Once we had everything dialed in, it made no difference to the hoists what the load was or where it was positioned – it lifted perfectly level under all conditions. There’s no question APPI was the right choice for this job as their system just flat worked right.”

On May 22, 2006, Fedrick watched as a team of ICDF sailors successfully guided Patrol Boat 5 into the cradle on the ship lift, secured it, and lifted it to dock level. He may have been “sweating a little,” but with the system operational and training complete, the rest of his job was “just paperwork.” Finally, in early June of 2006, with both the base facilities and the ship lift in the hands of the ICDF, Fedrick returned home to his family in the States.

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

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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.

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Why APPI:  When the US Navy contracted for a new parachute drying tower to be built at Hawaii’s Pearl Harbor/Hickham Base, the most important criteria of the building design was adequate space and height for the unrestricted drying of parachutes.  They also recognized it was critical they select parachute hoists that would maximize performance while minimizing package size and maintenance to ensure the most productive use of the space as possible.

Knowing of our experience with similar drying towers and parachute hoist designs, Navy engineers contacted us to assist with the layout and selection of components for this new facility.  The eight hoists are easy to operate from the custom control panel we provided and with 40 feet of lift, the largest of parachutes can be hung quickly and efficiently.

Please contact us if you would like more information about these particular parachute hoists 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.

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Why APPI: If you are not familiar with the James Webb Space Telescope project we would encourage you take a look at this link before reading any further https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/webb/main/index.html.

As you can see, the work is complex, technical, extremely sensitive – and extremely expensive.  After a rigorous vetting process we were very pleased when three of our Columbia HL15000 hoists with variable frequency drives to control the line speed were specified to suspend the telescope while it is being tested inside NASA’s simulation chamber.

With our AutoAdvance Line Spoolers to ensure proper wire rope spooling and the ability to operate the hoists at extremely slow speeds our hoists were the perfect match for this once in a life time application.

Please contact us if you would like more information about these particular variable speed hoists 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 Variable Speed Hoists Suspend James Webb Space Telescope in Simulation Chamber appeared first on Allied Power Products, Inc..

Why APPI: Kellogg Brown & Root since 2012 has been operating in Djibouti under the largest military contract in Africa for base operations, maintenance services, life support and logistics for Naval facilities engineering command Atlantic.  Djibouti is a remote hostile environment with little manufacturing or natural resources and most parts and equipment must be imported.

The Navy’s eight existing aircraft revetments were provided with an overhead door hoist system that could not adequately provide a safe environment for both personnel and high value aircraft. KBR (Kellogg, Brown & Root) was tasked with finding a hoist manufacturer, to replace the existing de-activated system, that could provide a custom solution to meet environmental, operational, personnel safety and reliability needs. KBR explored a number of manufacturers products but Allied Power Products uniquely designed system was the only one that could meet and exceed their needs while also providing the on-call troubleshooting and service they needed for this high-profile application.

Please contact us if you would like more information about these particular revetment hoists 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 Revetment Hoists Provide an Aircraft Revetment Solution appeared first on Allied Power Products, Inc..

Why APPI:  Dynavac is one of the leading manufacturers of high-vacuum systems that are used for manufacturing processes such as thin film deposition and applications as diverse as simulating the conditions in deep space.  To meet a customer’s operating requirements, they needed to provide a system with a guillotine door that measured 7 feet by 8 feet and a full inch thick.  Weighing 5,000 pounds, this door travels 10 feet inside a set of vertical guides.  Based on the parameters of this application, which included the availability of 460 volt 3 phase power, we provided a Columbia HL15000-4A17-L-05 base mounted hoist along with a top mounted vertical lead sheave to assist in proper spooling of the galvanized wire rope.

Please contact us if you would like more information about this particular base mounted 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 Base Mounted Hoist Assists in Lifting Chamber Door 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.

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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.

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Why APPI: When faced with the need to rotate a large aircraft nose assembly 180 degrees in order to install landing gear modules, a major aircraft manufacturer utilized a pair of Columbia AC Electric Strap Hoists from Allied Power Products, Inc. (APPI).

APPI provided two of their standard HD650 AC electric hoists with a strap drum option for this application. Each of the two-strap hoists winds a 2″ wide strap flat on the drum, eliminating the problems associated with wire rope spooling. The hoists are installed on a custom rotation fixture suspended from an overhead crane, and each ac electric hoist has 650 lbs. of lifting capacity at a speed of 21 feet per minute.

Two 15 foot long pendant controls allow precise positioning, and electrically released brakes ensure reliable load holding while the nose assembly is being rotated into position.

Please contact us if you would like more information about this particular strap hoists 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.

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