Material Handling

Challenge

Commonplace on construction sites through out the world the simple Gin wheel has reigned supreme. The scope was to develop a new wheel that in the event of a release on the lifting rope would arrest the load and allow it to descend under control,at a speed so as not to create other issues caused by falling loads. The basic function of raising a weight and allowing the rope tail to descend as in the original wheel were to be maintained.

Development

Creating initial sketch ideas of how the product would operate and then via modeling technique create prototypes, which could then be evaluated and refined.

Solution

A product that can be simply attached to a scaffold tube, easy to thread the rope through and run with ropes from 16 to 19 mm in different constructions was developed. The wheel free wheels in both directions but in the event of a sudden fall on the lift side the brake is applied and the load is lowered, due to the controlled descending it is easy to regaining control of the load by simply holding the rope as it slowly pulls through. Lifting is assisted by the size of the wheels and de-rigging sites is made simple and safe for lowering items down.