MGF design and manufacture their first bespoke lifting beam

Project Title: A new lifting beam was required to handle heavy steel sheets
Principal Contractor: Firth Steels Ltd
Key Contact: Mark Smith, Northern Lifting & Safety Manager
Key Benefit: MGF designed, manufactured and tested a new, innovative product to meet the customers’ needs

Introduction

Based in Yorkshire, Firth Steels Ltd manufacture specifically designed and engineered profiled steel which is used across the world. Due to a close working relationship, MGF were approached in March 2021 with a request for a new product that would allow the company to easily lift and transport heavy sheets.

The product would need to be capable of handling 17m long sheets of cladding so that sheets could be lifted from a roller bed onto the back of a wagon. As the cladding sheets are too long to be lifted using just chains, a bespoke lifting beam was proposed to allow the weight to be distributed evenly.

The Solution

With a requested length of 14m which was to be provided in 2x 7m lengths, this meant that the two beams would need to be connected via nuts and bolts. As the beam needed to support large loads of up to 1500kg, design and manufacturing drawings were produced with testing to follow at MGF’s Head Office upon approval.

The final design was provided in 2 separate modules, to ease with handling and transport. Each module featured end plates which allowed them to be connected and ultimately form a 14m long lifting beam. There were several lifting points depicted along the beam so that a sling could support the weight of the cladding and meet the customers length requirements.

Another request was that the lifting beam be made compatible with their forklift trucks. To do this, fork pockets were provided on the beam, these also acted as stabilising feet when not in use.

To simplify the design and ensure that the lifting beam was perfectly balanced, the design of each module allowed for them to be connected in either orientation, this also allowed each 7m module to be used as standalone lifting beams. Allowing the customer to have flexibility when using the beam.