Lifting slings aren’t only used for lifting and lowering loads, but are also often used to help move people, equipment and machinery. Using lifting slings in Industrial sectors, such as the mining industry, which have the need for large, heavy pieces of machinery. Lifting equipment is needed to ensure that they are handled safely around a worksite.
Read on below to find out more on how you can use slings with excavators and earth movers.
What are excavators and earth movers?
Excavators, sometimes also referred to as hydraulic excavators or earth movers, are large, heavy pieces of machinery. They are essentially used to dig and move, typically earth. But, they also have uses for applications such as river dredging, forestry mulching and drilling shafts.
An example of an excavator
They are most often used in the construction, mining, forestry, oil and gas and engineering industries. They have become critical parts of many of these industries, working in conjunction with other pieces of lifting equipment. While this equipment can lift, lower and move loads with a stable shape, excavators are needed to help transport the often large quantities of earth. Unfortunately, there is simply nowhere for lifting equipment to hook onto when it comes to earth!
Using lifting slings with this machinery?
While excavators still enjoy their own special usage on these worksites, they still depend heavily on lifting slings. They can’t be driven from worksite to worksite, and must instead be loaded onto the back of transport trucks. Slings are not only used to do this, but can also be used to help secure the machinery down too.
Excavators are a somewhat awkwardly shaped load, and some lifting equipment isn’t always capable of working with loads such as this. For this reason, this equipment is also the perfect alternative for tying around a load such as this.
It’s also important that this machinery isn’t damaged in any way. While wire rope is a great lifting tool, the metal that it is constructed from can sometimes cause abrasion damage to the loads that it is lifting. While lubricants can help to minimise this damage, sometimes it is better to go with a safer alternative such as some types of lifting slings.
You’ll even see this equipment being attached to the arm of an excavator, which can then operate as a crane! So, while this equipment is commonly used to move earth, it can double up as a multi-functional piece of lifting equipment too.
Given the large and heavy nature of excavators, it’s important all the necessary safety precautions are taken. We would recommend reading this
guidance information here.
Would you like to find out more?
It’s not just lifting slings that are great for moving these large pieces of equipment, but wire rope too. You can find out more about this in our extensive article
Wire Rope Uses Across Different Industries and Sectors.
If you are interested in finding out more specifically about using lifting slings, then we would love to help. Please find all of our contact details listed
here.
