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We sent information relative to the China Sling alert and the deceptive practices many of you have been subjected to. The image of rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic should have struck a cord. Already false statements about the alert are being made. The alert has to do with WEB slings. The fact that a WEB sling does or does not contain red core yarns does not determine the country of origin. Roundslings without red tracer yarns are not necessarily import.

For Immediate Release The design and fabrication experts at Lift-It Manufacturing have set another milestone in what could be considered the largest, synthetic bridle fabricated. The 108 ton rated bridle featured a 5 inch diameter masterlink. The link weighs 516 Lbs. and was selected to support and collect the two high capacity slings. The sling legs are high performance, Twin-Path® Extra Slings featuring K-Spec® high performance fiber. Spatial and pressure calculations were done in the design development stages by Mike Gelskey, Jr. and the sling was sold to Kennedy Wire Rope, Corpus Christi, TX.

The China Sling incident has gone viral as we have received the information from every major market segment of the industrial sling and rigging world. This is no surprise to us as we have made our customers and students aware of the deception that has been going on for years! If you have not seen the news, please do not hesitate and click on this link now for more information! When sling purchases are made solely on the basis of price, the low bid option will always be the successful bidder. Strategic alliance partners and large catalog supply companies who are driven by the obsession to be the successful low bidder, while maximizing profit margins will generally opt for a foreign option. There is nothing patently wrong with a foreign product as long as it meets the requirements of the purchaser.

Lift-It Manufacturing, a leading supplier of slings and rigging, has once again achieved a production milestone, supplying its largest cargo net to date. Lift-It’s latest and largest cargo net. Previously, the company’s largest heavy-duty cargo nets measured 25 feet by 25 feet, and were used to lift a 50,000-pound artifact in the Hawaiian Islands. More recently, a refinery in Trinidad and Tobago presented Lift-It’s experts with an even more substantial challenge: a 34-foot by 34-foot Barrier Net which, when completed, included 29 pounds of thread!

Mike Gelskey, Sr., Past President of the Web Sling and Tie Down Association (WSTDA) presented the details of a fatality resulting from the use of a damaged sling at the Fall 2012 meeting of the WSTDA held in Minneapolis, MN. The presentation explored the circumstances of the unfortunate and premature death of Rodney Armstrong Guy, a 32 year old lineman. Rodney Guy was killed at 2:15 PM on March 20, 1992 during a clipping operation of a 500kV transmission line in Rio Vista, CA.

Mike Gelskey, Sr., Chief Executive Officer, Lift-It Manufacturing presented on September 13th and 14th at the 2012 Canadian Crane and Rigging Conference, sponsored by Maximum Capacity Media in Edmonton, Canada. Mr. Gelskey presented a Management and Safety Overview of Regulatory, Industry and Association Developments in the sling and rigging industry.

Many web sling manufacturers have referred to Red Core Yarns as Red Core “WARNING” yarns. The red core “WARNING” yarns should simply be referred to as Red Core Yarns. “Warning” should be omitted as there is a false sense of security and an unreasonable emphasis placed on the red core yarns by uneducated sling users and inspectors. Red Core Yarns are not a viable inspection device. By the time the red core yarns become visible; the sling should be rejected and removed from service. Lift-It Manufacturing utilizes webbing with red core yarns to fabricate our web slings. Some manufacturers do not use sling webbing with red core yarns and use commercial equivalents of “Mil-Spec” or tie down webbing that does not employ red core yarns.

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 the necessary value to justify 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 effect of active chemical exposure on synthetics is an important consideration for responsible sling users, safety and training professionals. Many aspects must be considered. Time, temperature and concentration are primary considerations, but certainly not the only factors. For many years we have relied upon yarn engineers at various webbing mills where synthetic materials are made into webbing products for their opinions on application or suitability. The problem with those opinions is that they generally DO NOT take into account the cumulative effect of multiple chemicals and/or unique environmental factors. We also surveyed more than one mill to determine if all responses would be similar.