Most people associate coil lifters with the metals industry, and it’s true that they are primarily used by steel, aluminium, and titanium companies to move coils from one area to another within a building, or to load and unload trucks. However, they are also commonly found in paper mills, corrugated box manufacturing plants, and other facilities that use coiled materials.
In all of these locations, safe handling of coils is nearly always achieved with one of three types of lifter: A C-hook, Coil grab or Double leg. They can be used with almost any overhead crane and, in many instances, depending on the application, a user could utilise a gantry or jib crane. Because of this variety, coil lifters can be pendant or remote controlled, manual or motorised, standard or custom.
Coil lifters vary greatly in capacity too; we make C-hooks with capacities as low as 0.5 tons and as high as 60 tons, and we recently provided a telescoping coil lifter with 60 tons capacity. Notably, telescoping coil lifters are typically motorised, while C-hooks and vertical eye lifters are mainly manual products.
HOW DOES AN END USER KNOW WHICH ONE TO CHOOSE?
The most important considerations are the minimum and maximum outsider and inside diameters, coil width, and weight. Knowing these details will narrow down the selection within the three product families above but, additionally, the application needs to be understood in terms of the coil start and end locations, coil orientation, number of lifts, and environment. With this information, a technical specialist at a manufacturer can help direct the customer to the best lifter for their needs.
They might arrive at a C-hook, which is a C-shaped lifter mounted on a crane, typically used to lift, and move coils of aluminium or steel. Within that family, we have a line of Dixon Hooks, which we call Model 80; they are designed with a pivot wedge on the end of the lifting arm to aid in easy horizontal to vertical orientation. Our 82NC is similar to the Dixon hook, without the pivot wedge, and is designed specifically for narrow coils. Our other Model 82 lifters are made for larger, heavier coil lifts, and are counter-balanced to hang level when not in use.
Vertical eye coil lifters are used to lift vertically stacked (eye to the sky) coils. Within what we call our Model 83 range, customers can order three different models, all of which can handle vertically stacked coils with inner diameters from 16 inches to 24 inches. Our 83EW can lift up to 7.5 tons and offers simple, manual use. Our model 83HW can lift up to 10 tons, is operated with a chain wheel drive, and can be operated by hand wheel or electrically with a pendant. Our Models 84, 85, and 86 are all examples of double leg lifters; each lifts a coil with the inner diameter horizontal. A leg from the main frame hangs down on either side of the coil and is either manually, mechanically, or electrically adjusted to align with the opening of the inner diameter to grab, lift, and move the coil from one location to another. By far the most economical of the double leg coil lifters, however, is our Model 86 version. Telescoping coil lifters are double leg coil lifters with legs that telescope in and out to accommodate lifting multiple size coils. The Model 85 handles up to 33 tons and is also one of our most customised lifters. Mill-duty is a designation used for lifters being used on Crane Manufacturers Association of America (CMAA) Class D (heavy service) or higher cranes. They are used in heavy duty and severe duty environments, with an expected load cycle lifetime usage in excess of 500,000 lifts.
