Kentuckiana Wire Rope and Supply, a regional branch of Fulcrum Lifting, has supplied a 1-ton capacity custom Caldwell lifter for handling rubber turf mats.
Fulcrum, a distributor of the full range of Caldwell products, delivered the 48 in. x 96 in. ‘pallet’ to a utilities contractor that places the mats down on turf so plant and machinery doesn’t damage customers’ lawns and property during work. The product, that can be used with a forklift or truck crane, is used primarily for storage and transportation of the mats.
Caldwell manufactured the (yellow) product that combines with a 1 in. tie-down, manufactured by Kentuckiana, to prevent the mats from moving on trailers. Tim Coombs, product specialist at Kentuckiana, explained that the combined solution facilitates faster loading and unloading, while safety is enhanced because manual handling is reduced. Multiple mats are stacked on top of each other, as the demands of a project or day’s work dictates.
He added: “This project was likely a one-time purchase but the unit will be used daily as needed. The customer had seen a light-duty version of the system made of angle iron, in a catalog, that was designed to be used with a forklift only. They wanted the material pallet that could be used with a forklift and a truck crane. This meant that we had to add lifting points. Alternative, less favorable, solutions would include using wood pallets, loading and unloading the mats manually.”
The Jeffersonville, Indiana branch of Fulcrum Lifting has operated as Kentuckiana since 1981. It is a fabricator and distributor of a broad range of rigging products, making lifting slings to meet American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) standards. Kentuckiana Wire Rope and Supply collaborates with Caldwell most commonly when customers request below-the-hook devices that need to meet ASME B30.20-2018 standards that reference the BTH-1-2017 design specification. As Coombs said, many end users don’t recognize the manufacturer must meet BTH-1 design specifications to meet the ASME B30.20 standard. ASME recently released the new specification for B30.20, dated 2018, while BTH-1 was released a year earlier.
Regarding the current business climate, Coombs said: “The year has started out strong and encouraging. We have seen an uptick in requests recently—and hope it continues. As with most companies, 2020 was a challenge. Fulcrum has done quite well with smaller requests. Many customers had put bigger projects on hold, but are starting to see those projects come back around over the last couple of months.”