- The technology available
in the rigging industry is constantly changing.
And in this video,
we're gonna share a new type of chain sling
that can save you a lot of headaches on the job site.
(upbeat music)
Welcome back to The Lifting and Rigging Channel.
My name is Devon and today we're gonna cover
some information on a brand-new type
of lifting things called the GrabiQ.
We're gonna cover what that system is,
how it works, some common problems
and best practices to give you some great information.
If you're considering switching
from your current chain sling to something new.
Now joining me today is Felix Nyberg,
a Global Product Manager from Gunnebo Industries.
So Felix, first off, thank you for joining me.
- Thank you for having me and Devon.
- And why don't we start
with you just giving me a little bit
of background about yourself,
how you got into the industry and we'll start there.
- All right, so my name is Felix Nyberg.
I'm the Global Product Manager for The Crosby Group
for Shannon things, hooks, master links, horse strings
as well as a fishing in aquaculture.
I got into The Crosby Group from the Gunnebo site.
So Crosby acquired Gunnebo Industries last year
about May timeframe.
Before that I was working here in the U.S
so I'm currently site in Dallas.
And before that I was up in Tulsa
where Gunnebo had its U.S headquarters.
I was working as the sales manager for Western U.S
and Canada for Gunnebo at the time of acquisition.
And then I transitioned into a product management role.
And before moving to the States,
obviously you can tell I'm not from Tulsa or Dallas.
Before moving here,
I actually worked for Gunnebo in Sweden
taking care of exports for a number of years.
I've been in industry about six years now.
("Sweat It Out")
- What problems did you see in the industry
that you wanted to make this for to solve it?
- GrabiQ really came out when we moved
in the industry from grade eight to grade 100
and a lot of our components needed to change the forgings
either if it was just the marking seldom
and some need to change completely
just because we need to change some dimensions.
So instead of just reproducing the product line
as we had it in grade eight,
we actually went out and we talked to customers
and we talked to end users.
And we asked them, what do you like about chains,
what don't you like about chains?
Why would he use a wire rope or synthetic over chain?
And what people would really love
about chain is the adjustability.
It's much harder to adjust a wire ropes,
thing you can do it with a turnbuckle for example,
or you can do it in a few different ways,
but it's much more difficult
than to do it with chain
and the same with synthetic.
So the adjustability is really
one of the main advantages with a chain sling
and the durability is another part of it.
It's very durable, especially compared to the synthetics
but also compared to Y rope.
It's a very durable material then in harsh environments
and even in hot environments,
such as a steel mill for example,
chain slings will last you much longer.
So that's what they liked about it.
But what it didn't like with it was that it's heavy.
Obviously when you have wire rope
is just a straight line essentially of steel.
Whereas the chain, it goes around in small circles or links.
So it's very heavy.
And especially at the top
where if it were a rope,
you have a nice connection with the flemish eye, for example
there's not too many components and it's fairly lightweight
but with chain, you had connectors.
And to add that adjustability
you needed additional connectors
you needed shortening hooks.
So it was quite a lot of different components up there.
And that's essentially what you lift the top assemblies
what you lift up to the hook when you're putting your sling
onto a crane hook.
So they didn't like the weight of it.
And those components also made it more difficult to inspect
made it more difficult to assemble it.
And also the bunching
up by the chain made it complicated to use.
("Sweat It Out")
We came up with the GrabiQ system.
And here you have a MGD, which is one of our top sellers
which is the integrated master link connector
and grab hooks all in one.
So instead of having about seven components
you now have just a single component.
So it's much quicker to inspect in the field.
You're only have two load bearing points there
plus the top here that connects to the mass thing.
So it's very easy and quick test inspect.
It's much lighter.
It's about half the weight of a traditional setup,
and you don't have any reduction
in the working load limit.
With the GrabiQ system that came around
when we moved from grade eight to grade 100
and that also made the working load limit increased 25%
versus the prior systems.
So you had an increasing the capacity
which allowed you to use smaller
chain sling to lift the same weight.
And you also had the reduction of the number of skew
or components and reduction of the weight,
where the integration of the components.
So that all made it a much easier
and simpler system that removed some of these,
drawbacks that you had with a traditional chain system.
("Sweat It Out")
- You have a lot of people on the job site.
They grew up using what they had.
Typically the purchasers buy,
whatever they are going to use.
And then the rigger just learns how to use it.
How much training is involved when it comes from a person
who is using a conventional chain lifting sling,
and then transitions to this new system.
- That's a really great thing about the system as well.
You can make it a simple
or as advanced as you really want to.
So if you go back to the MDG that I showed you here,
it's really even more straightforward
than a traditional chain sling
because here is just, it's super easy.
You just hang it on the crane hook and you're good to go.
If you need to shorten,
it's you can shorten it just by the integrated grab hooks
and you can shorten it either way.
So there's really very little training needed.
If you're used to working with chain slings today
to move over to grabbing chain sling.
("Sweat It Out")
Then of course you can moving to more advanced
additions to it, such as the MIG grab
to make it more efficient,
where you can put it and shorten it anywhere on the chain.
- What's the big benefit of using the midgrab
as opposed to just using your adjusting point
that you already had?
Why add the second piece of componentry?
- The chain sling I have here,
it's about five foot long.
And that's a very short chain sling,
most chain sling are longer than that.
And once you start getting up
to very long chains slings used at construction sites
for example to lift precast concrete walls
in a warehouse going up, for example.
You need to wait for the block to come down.
So if you're waiting for that block to come all the way down
and it's at least 20 foot up in the air
because it's, the chain sling is 20 feet up
and needs to come down to working height,
which will be about three feet high.
And a block is moving maybe 20 foot a minute,
so you're gonna wait a minute for it to come down.
Then you're gonna adjust it.
Then you're gonna bring it back all the way back up again,
wait another minute
and maybe have two or three guys
that are standing around waiting
for this block to go up and down, plus the crane operator.
And then you realize, okay, we need to shorten one link more
on the left leg.
So then you bring it down.
You're losing another minutes, adjusting it
bringing it back up again.
So with the midgrab, you can adjust it anywhere
on the chain sling.
You can actually adjust it down by the hook.
So as you can see, it's a forged piece of equipment
and you don't have any reduction
in working, no limits, when you using it.
So it just mounts on the chain,
you see that one is already mounted here.
So you bunch up to chain,
pull out your MIG grab
and you push the chain through,
and then you use slot it into the slots here.
So now the midgrab is on the chain,
you pushing these close devices.
So you just push them and twist them half a turn,
push them in and twist them half a turn.
And now you have the ability to shorten the chain down
but hooks, instead of having to lower that block
all the way down, 20 feet
you just slack the chain,
you put the chain in and then you pull the chain tight.
And it requires less attempts of getting it right
because you can just pull the chain tight.
And also you don't need to lower the block down all the way.
("Sweat It Out")
So we actually had a lot of customers
that talk to us about how much time you saved,
but then when you're talking to other people
and they realize that it's a great product
and they've stood there
and a lot of rigorous have stood there
waiting for the block to go up and down a bunch of times,
they realize that it's great,
but it's also an additional cost.
So we actually developed this calculator.
So if you're going to grabiq.com,
the first thing that pop up
is the main grab savings calculator.
So you can just click here start saving,
and we'll go with imperial.
We already have you US dollar selected.
So if you don't know how quick
the block is going up and down,
the average is about 350 foot per minute
per single and part line
or a hundred meters per minutes.
So we're gonna put 350 feet in there
and let's use assume you have five sheaves reeved
which would give you a 10 parcel line.
And essentially it decreased that to 35 foot per minute
that the block is going traveling up and down.
And then you just plug in our cost here.
Let's say $500 for the crane cost, $200 for labor
and let's say $200 for the all cost.
We have a 30 foot sling
and we need to adjust three times before we get it right.
And we have, let's say 25 lifts per day.
So obviously you can just play around with this.
And maybe you don't have all your five sheaved reeved
or maybe you don't have this crane cost
or maybe your sling is shorter,
but it's super easy to use.
You just plug in your numbers,
and what it will tell you is,
how much you will save per lift?
So in this case, we saved almost five minutes per lift
or $70 and per day with the number of lifts that you do
you would save almost two hours.
And let's say that you had three guys working on this
with the crane operator and two rigorous,
that's six man hours a day that you're saving
and almost $1,800.
So very quickly.
And I mean, you can play around
you can adjust it depending on your need and your situation,
but this is a super simple calculator
just to show how much money
and time you could actually save.
And this is just per day,
you're not just gonna do lifts per day in many cases
you're gonna do it for several weeks at the site.
So this would obviously be multiplied
each day you're using,
each day you're doing lifts with the midgrab.
So in situations where you do have a long sling
and you're doing a lot of adjustments,
the midgrab it's a great tool
to really help you save both time and money.
- I think the normal speak is gonna be,
oh, it doesn't take that long to adjust to chain.
It doesn't take as long as you think it does.
The thing that I like about this calculator is it,
helps you actually quantify how much time you're wasting.
So it's easy to say, oh, it's not that bad,
it's just a couple of guys only taking a couple of minutes.
But if you actually sit there and do the math
and look at how long it takes you to get the block down,
to get everything adjusted, send it back up,
go back and fix it again.
I think that there's a lot of value to this calculator
just to help people get a true assessment
of exactly how much time and money they're wasting,
that can be solved if they maybe look at something
that's a little different than what they've been using
for the last couple of years.
I'd like to switch a little bit into,
maybe some problem areas.
Where are situations or environments,
or maybe even job sites where,
these types of chains systems don't really work as well
as they do in other applications.
- All type of chains have there the benefits and drawbacks,
and as with any chain system
it will still be heavy.
It is still a lot of metal.
And especially as you go up in sizes,
it will still be heavier than your synthetic slings.
Another issue is that if you have sensitive surfaces
such as a painted surface,
or you have stainless steel for example,
or pipes, the chain is durable
and it's usually pretty hard.
So it can actually damage sensitive loads
which is another drawback.
As far as chain systems go,
it is a very very versatile system and flexible,
and it's very straightforward to use.
However, once you start getting into
these more advanced rigging techniques,
such as using the MIG grab or using the flex leg,
which is another even further advanced
than different types of hitches.
It can get more complicated.
And if you have unexperienced rigors
it might not be the best system for them.
Or you might have to think once or twice
before you put in hand, or just provide more training.
- Specifically in the realm of like training
and rigging it up.
What are you seeing out there
for people that might be making some mistakes
or common problems with it.
- Just as you would have with any rigging
that they rig it incorrectly
or they're using the wrong angles
or using the wrong, working load limits.
And also with the more advanced types of hitches
that you can do with the GrabiQ system
and use the different components for great flexibility
such as using a CLS, as an end fitting for a shocker,
for example, there might be people that just
either don't realize how much they need to de-rated
when they're doing a shocker
even though it's a shock fitting.
So just being aware of that,
the fittings look a little bit different.
The slings look a little bit different
and you still have to be aware of
how much you can lift with it
and rig it properly obviously.
And master link sizing for example.
So one of the big benefits
with the using a CLS and fitting is also
that you can rig it back up to the master link
but then you need to make sure that you have a master link
and a sling that is appropriate for that kind of load
or else that you don't use the full true basket capacity.
("Sweat It Out")
- Is there an issue
with like mixing these technologies together,
like grabbing your midgrab
and throwing it on a, just a different chain sling
that they have on the work site?
- So to grab it is a system,
it's the sign and developed to work with the GrabiQ chain
and the GrabiQ components and the GrabiQ master links.
It's easy to make sure that you have the right components,
if you have an old GrabiQ system,
you can look at a master link,
look at the nomenclature, look at a hooks
and you can all verify that it's the right components
and it should all go together.
And they all have the same working, no limits.
Now, if you do introduce other types of chain,
you introduce other types of components or fittings.
Then of course, some of it will work together
because products are designed to standard.
And for example the chain standard regulate,
which size a three H chain is.
Now we haven't tested with all the other competitors chains
that are out there and risk tolerances
within those standards.
So it could end up with
that you're using the midgrab
or using one of our grab hooks
with a different type of chain
and it will not set properly
and you can actually get a reduction in the breaking lot.
- Okay, and so that's a really, really good
just word of warning.
All the systems are manufactured to a specific design
the ratios and everything.
It's important that all that stuff is followed.
But if you're just mixing product in the field,
there's a really good opportunity
for you to make a mistake
where you're mixing something
that shouldn't be part of that system.
So I think that's a really good point as well
as if you can keep it all
in the GrabiQ family, you're gonna have success
because everything is from the same manufacturer.
Once you start mixing different things
because you have them available,
you might run into some issue.
So make sure that you're doing your research
especially the manufacturer specifications
before you rig anything in a weirder unconventional way
just because you're trying to get this thing knocked out.
There's a lot of those
like, hey, we're getting ready to take lunch
knock that out real quick, let's roll
huge area of opportunity for mistakes in that.
- Yeah and just to add to that,
the risk of liability.
So if you're staying with one manufacturer,
you have one manufacturer that's carrying the liability
in case of something would go wrong.
But if you're mixing somebody chain
with the midgrabs and then some other hooks
then you now have a bunch of different manufacturers
in this liability case.
And that could also cause
both confusion and be problematic and cost of process
to be much more longer than it needed to be.
("Sweat It Out")