I thought I would share two applications of the many we have been solving in the last year using our crane gravity safety latches. Keep in mind that these latches are not for every application, and a standard spring latch will do the job 99 times out of 100. These are just a couple of the possible uses of our latches.

This application was for a hoist used in a heat treating process, where the hook temperature regularly approached 350 degrees Fahrenheit. You can see that originally the application was being serviced by a spring latch, however the latch was hot to handle and heavy gloves made it harder to facilitate getting the load bail out of the hook.



You can see the hook and bottom block gets baked on a regular basis.

Due to restrictions a new hook and latch was fabricated.



After installation the hook and latch were put to good use in production:



The above pictures show the customer using the ball lock pin to maintain the latch in the closed position.

This next application was to prevent the operators from getting their fingers pinched in the operation of the original spring latch while wearing gloves. The operation required the operator to place a new load in the saddle of the hook 125 times per shift, which just increased operator injuries.

The above pictures look like any other spring latch application.

After design and installation, the final latch looked good!



The customer reported an immediate drop in injuries with our latch in place, and ordered a second latch for another application in the plant.

If you have any questions about Gravity Latches or would like help with an application, please contact your Crane Doctor Eric Brown at Engineered Lifting Systems.