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In the 1990′s an article was published stating that synthetic slings lose strength, strictly as a function of time. The article relayed the results of destruction testing performed on USED slings taken from power plants, line trucks, paper mills and other locations. A majority of the slings broke below a 5/1 design factor. The less than scientific conclusion of the testing was that synthetic slings lose strength as a function of time and I was mentioned, possibly to add credence to the incorrect conclusion by making the point that if shelf life were not valid, “Gelskey would not put the date of manufacture on all slings made by his company”. The logic was incorrect on many levels. The so called experiment lacked many basic elements necessary to prove the hypothesis under what is accepted as the scientific method, namely the independent variable, time was not isolated.

t was a pleasure to present for the AWEA-O&M and Safety Seminar for the fourth consecutive year. Everything was first cabin, as usual and Hotel Del Coronado was a delightful location for the conference. Another power conference requested a presentation on Cost Effective Excellence in the context of sling and rigging activities. For thirty-three years I have presented a simple message: rig right to go home at night.

I thought it was 3 strikes, you’re out? A one strike, you’re out rule would result in a catastrophic outcome if your team was down by 1, bases loaded in the bottom of the 9th and it was game seven of the world series. Thankfully the rules for baseball are different than the rules for sling inspection, but many don’t see it that way. The use of damaged slings and rigging equipment results in catastrophic events that could play out if this gear is not inspected by informed and educated educated sling inspectors. There is zero tolerance for defects for synthetic slings.

OPPD-Ft. Calhoun Walks the Talk! I meet many different people and everyone says that they will contact me for training. Some of the same folks I have seen no less than nine times in so many years keep on repeating the same old line. There are thinkers, talkers and people who take action. The safety professionals at OPPD-Ft. Calhoun have spent more time, money and resources than any single generator of power that we have ever had the pleasure of knowing. This summer we will present another Sling and Rigging Hardware Inspection Program on location for them.

I was asked to present a sling and rigging overview training course for helicopter rigging at the 2014 HAI Conference in Anaheim, California. It was an honor to present the program with Robert Libby, Advanced Helicopter Training, Inc. in a preconference educational program. Jeff Gordon, Southern California Edison also presented a brilliant program on the planning that should be involved in all helicopter rigging applications. Both Mr. Gordon and Mr. Libby commented that while helicopter rigging is an extremely important factor in any successful mission, it often is totally overlooked when compared with land based lifting operations. Helicopter lifting slings like any rigging device, when used improperly can result in injury or death.

Junior has worked at Lift-It prior to entering that wonderful period we refer to as the teenage years. Being a middle child didn’t help matters. The good people at PG E really thought the world of Junior when instead of selling them a very expensive spreader beam and rigging, he suggested that they purchase the rigging and RENT the spreader bar. Months later this was brought to my attention at a management presentation for Pacific Gas & Electric. Needless everyone, including me was impressed with the idea and thankful that greed did not motivate the “middle child”.

APS-PVNGS Takes Excellence Up a Notch Arizona Public Service, Palo Verne Nuclear Generating Station is the nation’s largest nuclear generation facility. The Lift-It family has had a long and honorable history with the good people at PVNGS. Many take distressed slings and use them for tiebacks to secure crane blocks and headache balls to the equipment during transport. The safety professionals at PVNGS took excellence to a higher level reasoning that distressed slings should not be used for any application. They had dedicated, polyester roundslings manufactured and labeled specifically for this application. Contact us and we can fabricate, colorize and label tie back slings for your application.

AEP – DC Cook Gets the Lead Out The professionals at AEP, DC Cook took a proactive approach and did more than talk about a problem. The collaboration with the design and fabrication team at Lift-It Manufacturing resulted in a custom, Lead Blanket Cart (Model No. LMC100355-755) capable of handling 4000 Lbs. The Cart has usable inside width dimensions of 27.75″ and usable interior length dimensions of 48 inches. Custom sizes and capacities are readily available.

We are honored to announce the collaboration between Van Beest and Lift-It® Manufacturing. Lift-It® is the west coast, master distributor for Van Beest. Without substituting quality for cost, the Green Pin® brand has earned a reputation as an industry leader in design and quality standards. Compliant with a wide range of internationally and nationally recognized standards such as RR-C-271, all Van Beest products carry a “metric” or long ton rating.

Effective rigger training like all training must do much more than simply provide information. Rigger training that does not result in changed behavior will not improve safety by reducing accidents. Long before industrial training was fashionable I began developing sling and rigging training which continues to evolve with each and every training session. Based upon the feedback we receive from corporate, association and industrial training clients we know that passion and conviction play incredible roles in modifying dangerous behavior resulting in accident prevention.

Wire rope slings have been the backbone of the sling and rigging industry for many years. Industrial lifting, crane and rigging companies have successfully used wire rope slings for many different applications. Even with the advent of synthetic slings in the early 1970’s, wire rope slings continue to have a place in rigging lofts worldwide. It is important to know how to select a wire rope sling for a particular application. Initially wire rope slings were “hand spliced” and some may still use hand spliced wire slings. It is well known that rotation of the load can cause a hand spliced wire rope sling to come undone resulting in a dangerous situation. Wire rope slings with mechanical spliced, Flemish eyes are a much better sling than a hand spliced sling.

I presented the details of a fatality resulting from improper sling usage for the Associated Wire Rope Fabricators at their October 2013 meeting in Los Angeles. My presentation followed Todd Peterson, an attorney, who presented the events surrounding a serious injury that occurred in Omaha, Nebraska. The economic impact from injury is generally more of a serious consequence to a manufacturer than a fatality. I began my career in the rigging industry at the ripe old age of seventeen. Seven years later I founded Lift-It Manufacturing. My training career began when I was twenty-six and I have been “practicing” for the past thirty-three years to perfect a message that will educate, inspire and challenge my students to adopt a quest for excellence that does not allow compromise.