- Finding the accurate weight of the load
that you're about to lift
is one of the most crucial steps of your lifting plan.
And in this video we're going to cover a tool
that can help remove the guesswork from your next lift.
(upbeat music)
Welcome back to the Lifting and Rigging Channel.
My name is Devon.
And today we're going to give you some information
on a piece of rigging hardware.
That when added to your lifting plan,
can take the guesswork out of
how much weight you're about to lift.
So you don't have to do all of that mathematics yourself.
Joining me today for this breakdown is Aaron Orsak
from Straightpoint.
Aaron thank you for joining me today.
- Hey thanks so much for having me.
I'm excited about our conversation.
- So me and I'm sure a lot of people already know
who you are,
Personally I mean I came into
this industry about almost four years ago now.
And a lot of my time in
this company has spent watching your videos,
and having you do tutorials live for our company.
So I was really excited to get to work
with you specifically on this project,
because that's going to be a terrible feeling
if you're not 100% sure what's going to happen
when you start lifting that load in the air.
- That's exactly right.
You know what I traveled all over
or did before we couldn't travel anymore.
And I would do these trainings with people,
we'd go out into a shop and we'd have an overhead crane.
And I'd say okay guys we're going to pick up
this piece of a wire rope spool or something.
And say okay guys guess how much it weighs right?
You're going to get a hat if you guess closest
to the weight.
So guys are guessing and then they want to get
that Crosby hat or whatever.
And so we get down to where everybody's kind of got
their weight in.
And I go okay time out.
If I wasn't here you didn't have this load cell,
you were going to pick this up what would you do?
You would guess.
And that's really what we're after.
Taking the guesswork out of lifting something up.
Know what you're weighing,
take all of those risks as associated
with not knowing out of the equation.
Just have something to monitor the weight.
So that's really what we're after.
- And again that's why I'm so excited about
this conversation because just all we want...
As we always want for the Lifting Rigging Channel
is to make sure that you have a better understanding
of what you're getting yourself into.
So you're not guessing on your job site.
(upbeat music)
So before we kick off Aaron,
why don't you give us some background on you?
Like I said I've been watching your videos for years now,
I know you've been in the industry forever.
So if you could give us some background on yourself.
And then talk about the Straightpoint.
And the Crosby group kind of transition
and what's going on with that relationship.
- Yeah cool.
So I started in the Lifting and Rigging industry in 2005.
Completely green didn't know a thing about rigging,
didn't even know it was a thing right.
Was thrown to the fire in an inside sales position
that's a very steep curve right.
Because the rigging industry has lots of tools,
lots of things to sell.
And getting to a point
where you can efficiently tell a customer,
what they really need for their application
or what is the best solution it takes time right?
- [Devon] Absolutely.
- So yeah.
So about 15 years in the lifting and rigging industry.
I started with Straightpoint specifically focused
on load monitoring in 2015.
And in January of 2019 yeah Crosby purchased Straightpoint.
We have good people at Straightpoint
and we have good people at Crosby.
We've been able to work together
and the relationships that I've built over the years,
it just all came hand in hand.
So it's been really good.
- For years you had to figure out
how to calculate the weight of the load yourself.
We've even made a video to try to help teach you
how to do some of those formulas you can figure it out.
But when we did that project a lot
of the feedback that we got,
was still even knowing what the formulas are.
People are just not comfortable for the most part.
Going okay so I was able to do this and this.
I am pretty confident that that's how much that thing weighs
let's roll the dice and see what happens.
That's a terrible thing to feel.
(upbeat music)
So saying that let's go ahead and get into
this specific tool on load cells and dynamometers.
I believe is the term that we use?
- Yep dynamometers.
- So if I could have you stop by just explaining
what they are and kind of how they're used in lifting.
That an average rigor could pull another tool box throw
it on a crane and then see what's happening.
- So a load cell or a dynamometer is really about knowing
how much you're picking up.
It's going to tell you or indicate how much weight
it is that you have on your hook.
We use strain gauge technology which they look like an EKG
if you ever have any EKG.
It's a little microscopic thing.
And we bond those to the metal of the load link type
or the shackle in the pin.
And we measure the microscopic strain of the load cell,
and we convert that into a pound
or a kilogram or kilotony.
So when we talk about calibration a lot of times
in load cells you'll hear that word calibration.
We're calibrating the strain of the body through the range.
So if you have a 10 ton load cell or dynamometer,
we're saying okay we're calibrating it at two ton
that body is going to deform microscopically like this.
At six ton it's going to deform like that.
Now you'll never see that with your eyes,
if you do it's time to leave.
(Devon laughs)
Right, but it is that body's deforming
and then when it comes back down to no tension
it returns to zero.
That body is not deformed anymore.
So that's really how a load cell works.
Any kind of wireless or electronic load cell strain gauge
is working on the microscopic deflection,
of whatever the strain gauges are bonded to.
(upbeat music)
- And so what are the different types of load cells
or dynamometers that are available on a job site?
- Yeah 10-4.
So this is the radiolink plus.
This is our link style load cell.
So shackle on the top, shack on the bottom.
Put the shackle in the hook and attach your rigging
to the bottom shackle.
Now this comes out to a wireless handheld
that looks like this.
It's got buttons on the bottom here down the side.
This is the most popular best-selling product globally.
This is the most common used load cell in the industry.
And so people will use that in their rigging,
they'll have it in carry case.
And when they need to monitor their loads
which let's be honest should be every time.
They can pull that out put those shackles in line
and go after it.
Put their rigging on and go.
And they'll be able to stand at a safe distance.
That wireless handheld has a thousand meter range
that's 3, 300 foot.
Now we don't know anybody and I've not encountered anybody
who needed to be a thousand meters away right.
But what that means is that the signal at two, three,
four hundred foot is very strong still.
It's a very robust signal.
And it's radio frequency it's 2.4 gigahertz license free.
So that item is the most commonly used tool
in the rigorous box when they're talking about load cells.
Sometimes they'll see a load cell that has kind of a face
on it that the readout is on it, right.
So they don't have a handheld
they just got just a screen on the load cell.
Well there's a couple of issues with that,
how close do you have to be to it to see that screen?
- [Devon] Right.
- Right, the screens is limited
to the amount of space it has here.
Typically they're about an inch or less tall.
And you're not backlit.
It's not a backlit screen.
So you've either got to be really close to the load
which is dangerous.
Or you've got to have binoculars.
And if you're like me you got
to have the motion de-sensing binoculars,
that are high dollars.
And then you're still going to be wondering
if it's a six or an eight, right.
So that's where the handheld comes in place,
you can see it here.
Now our load cell is strictly wireless right.
There is no face on this load cell,
there's no readout it's polycarbonate.
So if it gets gouged or dinged
or anything like that you can still use it.
If you've got a load cell with a face on it
and it gets gouged it's done.
(upbeat music)
- And so what are some other common types of those systems
that you have for monitoring the weight load?
- So this is the wireless load shackle.
So you'll see here there's a centering bobbin.
It's a bolt type shackle.
So the bolt comes out right.
And so this type of load cell is used
for Low Headroom applications,
permanent installation, heavy lift.
We make these up through 1, 500 metric ton.
So if you could consider let's say a 400 ton load cell.
If you can imagine one of these 400 ton
with a 400 ton shackle on top
and a 400 ton shaft on the bottom.
It's so much headroom, it's so heavy all
of those components together.
Where you could just have a wireless load shackle 400 ton
and just put your hook in,
it put your rigging on it and go right.
- How do you monitor that one?
So the other one you said it had this cool handheld device.
If you're using that shackle how do you look
at the readout to see what you're lifting?
How much it weighs and whether or not you're
in the right spot?
- Yeah brilliant.
So again the yellow handheld will have a readout
on the screen here.
Now they're offered in a Bluetooth version.
But Bluetooth is not apples to apples right?
There's about 100 meters or 300 foot communication length
for Bluetooth which that's really good for Bluetooth.
But we have to remember that Bluetooth
is a relatively weak signal.
If there's a bunch of other wireless crane controls
or interference or anything like that,
Bluetooth is just not strong enough to punch
through those other signals.
So yeah you can monitor that load cell that wireless shackle
on that yellow handheld and move on.
In fact the yellow handheld can monitor up
to four wireless devices at one time.
So if you've got a four point lift you need
to put four shackles.
You can use that one same yellow handheld
to monitor all four.
Or you can see a different screen
that shows a total weight.
- [Devon] Interesting.
- [Aaron] So it's a lot of variables there you can do.
- Absolutely, yeah because not every application
is just one specific anchor point.
Sometimes you have multiple especially
on bigger heavier applications.
So it's awesome that you have the flexibility to add more
than one if you need one just to make sure,
that you have a true monitoring experience
to know what your lift again.
What's happening with that lift.
- That's right.
Now the biggest difference
between the link style radiolink plus
and the wireless load shackle is the accuracy.
Okay so a a link style like this is a point 1% plus or minus
of capacity right.
So if we talk about a 12 ton radiolink plus
that's 26, 000 pounds because it's a metric ton.
So we're talking about plus or minus 26 pounds.
So that's really good for 26, 000 pounds plus
or minus 26 pounds.
The shackle, a 12 ton shackle
again 12 ton metric ton 26, 000 pounds is plus
or minus 1% of capacity.
So now we're talking about a plus or minus of 260 pounds.
So the shackle will never be as accurate
as the radiolink plus.
But there are environments and there are applications
where headroom is absolutely critical,
that you just will not be able
to get a link style radiolink plus in there right.
So that's when we move to the shackle.
And when customers go from no weight monitoring to plus
or minus 1% that's really a great advantage,
or a great improvement over no load monitoring at all.
(upbeat music)
- So we talked about the radiolink.
You talked about that shackle.
What other types of systems do you have for load monitoring?
If people are interested in this type of product
that are looking for what else is on that market?
- Yeah so we have customers that call us
and say hey I'm working with auto crane
on the side of a truck it's one ton, it's not a lot.
I don't need to be 200 foot away.
I just need something that's going
to be reliable lightweight.
I can pull it out, I can see it on my phone
and just use an App.
So we have the blue link.
Now the blue link is a six and a half ton capacity.
It is Bluetooth only,
it's meant to be used with our HHP App which is free
on the Android or IOS platforms.
And the customer can monitor the loads,
on that load on their phone for free right.
So they can connect again 100 meter range,
300 foot line of sight clear day.
But it is a cost-effective solution.
It's lightweight it weighs less than four pounds.
Put two shackles on it put it on and move on.
Know what you're lifting.
So that is a really popular, it's gaining popularity.
That product has been about a year and a half now launched
and it's really taken off.
Customers love it,
they love the flexibility that the App gives them
to monitor the load.
They can do logging in the App,
so they can monitor the whole lift
and print out a report if they wanted to.
So yeah, so that blue link it's effective
for some applications.
But again Bluetooth and long distance radio frequency
like yellow handheld not apples to apples right?
It's per application.
- And I think the reason that I like the App element
so much is because to me like if you're moving something,
you have like a remote pendant control.
Sometimes that's not always where it's supposed to be.
Sometimes you have another guy who picked it up
and put it somewhere else.
And you know where it should be
but it's definitely not there.
But if it's on your App here your phone is typically
in your pocket anyway in your back pocket for safety.
And so I like the flexibility of being able
to monitor your load weight with something,
that's just fitting in your back pocket.
So you don't have to rely on somebody else losing your stuff
or accidentally taking it home.
Or it's in their truck or something like that.
That's cool I like that you put that software design
into that application.
That was really cool.
- Yeah when we talked about safety
and having it in your hand.
Having the cell phone in your hand,
well do I really want to be pulling out the cell phone
while I'm operating the crane that kind of thing?
We made it where the blue link eight different phones can
be connected to it at one time.
- [Devon] Nice.
- So if we have one lift that we're making
and let's say the foreman wants
to monitor the load while the crane operator.
He doesn't have to pass his phone off with the App right.
Both of them can have the App on their phone,
the foreman can just watch.
Yes, no, maybe so go for it right.
But as a double check if there's a project engineer he wants
to see it as well they can both connect to it,
or all three it doesn't matter.
Up to eight phones connected to that one blue link.
- And so for practical application
do you typically see one guy's lifting the crane,
the other person is watching the monitor of the load?
So that it's more of like a team dynamic as opposed
to one person who's trying to juggle the phone,
in the lift and monitor all at the same time?
- Yeah, typically that's the case.
Right, we've got one guy who's operating the crane he
is focused on the load, he's watching the crane,
he's watching the operation, he's controlling it.
Then we have another guy if there's a team environment
that's monitoring our load cell,
he'll be holding it.
He'll give an audio cue to the crane operator,
like hey we're getting close.
Or hey stop that kind of thing.
But in a single person environment we do have some customers
who use like the little pop-its on the back of their phone.
And put it in a holder next to where they'll be operating.
So if you can imagine a crane operator
with his screens in his cab.
- [Devon] Yeah.
- Right single operator going for it.
Much like that these guys are using say a blue link
with the App.
They've got their phone held in front of them,
but they're operating the crane and making sure right
that they're not overloading or getting close to loads.
So there's some flexibility there.
Obviously team environments much more desirable right?
- [Devon] For sure.
- But in the real world not
that doesn't happen all the time.
- Yeah and that's the cool thing about that.
It obviously in a perfect world it would be great,
if you always had a team with you best case scenario
that's what you want.
But you know there are tools designed to help you get
through this on your own.
If you have to get through it on your own.
So that is awesome that you have that opportunity.
- Yeah and the Bluetooth App actually has an audible alarm
that's programmable.
So if he really needs...
The operator really needs to just know
when he's getting close to a load.
He can set that phone down,
focus on the load and then when it hits that target
that he's programmed in there let's say a thousand pounds
it'll start beeping at him.
(Aaron beeping)
Right so he knows he doesn't even have to look at it.
He can just okay I gotta stop.
(upbeat music)