YOKE Industrial Corp. is a Gold Sponsor at LiftEx, which takes place October 16-17 at London’s Olympia Stand 50.

YOKE, an industrial lifting equipment manufacturer, will show a full range of products, including lifting points, chain fittings, and wire rope accessories. The company now puts radio frequency identification (RFID) chips in 95% of its range of forged products — and it will demonstrate this technology in a co-located exhibit with RiConnect, a provider of cloud-based Software as a Service (SaaS).

“A high profile at LEEA’s [Lifting Equipment Engineers Association] main event will reiterate how our products are not only transforming the material handling industry, but are doing so in line with the association’s ongoing guidance and industry standards,” said Andy Charlesworth, MD YOKE Lifting UK.

YOKE will showcase a full catalogue of products for use in the lifting industry, all aligned with a mission to manufacture quality products and safety equipment to deliver superior safety protection.

YOKE’s RFID chips are even in a 7mm connector and 1t capacity shackle. That drastically enhances safety and helps industry keep up with pre-use checks, unique identification numbers, and the move towards January 2027, when everybody is expected to be working to the Machinery Regulation.

That’s when the EU Machinery Regulation fully applies, and the Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC is repealed. Eventually, the Machinery Regulation will eliminate all the different requirements across all of the EU member states, so they all follow the same regulation.

YOKE’s chips also help the duty holder. While supply legislation does not require a manufacturer of lifting equipment to give it a unique identification — it simply requires them to mark one on the product if they have specified one — user legislation requires the duty holder to have lifting equipment inspected and / or thoroughly examined and issued with a report of that inspection or thorough examination. This report must identify the equipment without ambiguity so that defects can be remedied efficiently.

Charlesworth added: “We frequently point people to LEEA’s guidance that where a duty holder has many items of a similar generic form of lifting equipment, it is considered best practice to give each piece its own unique identification number, which is then recorded on each thorough examination report, thus ensuring the report is traceable to the equipment without ambiguity.

“That’s without referencing that we’re playing a role in digitalising the entire supply chain, meaning more people can safely following materials from the point of manufacture to use through state-of-the-art RFID and SaaS.

“We still visit rigging shops and see people at workbenches hard stamping batches of 1,000 shackles and preparing individual certification that needs to be produced. By implementing technology, sustainability is greatly enhanced because it eliminates the need for paperwork. This is also a subject close to the heart of LEEA and its membership.”

YOKE has also been shortlisted for three LEEA Awards, which will be presented on October 16, at London’s famous Dorchester Hotel. YOKE has made the shortlist in the Excellence in Product Innovation, Excellence in Safety, and Sustainability Excellence Award categories. Winners will be announced at a gala event at the halfway point of LEEA’s flagship event.

Charlesworth said: “The nominations reaffirm how YOKE’s products are revolutionising the material handling industry — and doing so in line with LEEA’s wider endeavours.”