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Understanding the difference between an open winch and a built-up hoist will help end users make informed buying decisions, says Tad Dunville.

Three types of hoists—packaged, open winch, and built-up.

Too often an open winch hoist is installed where a built-up hoist would be more appropriate, particularly in the long term.  In the main, this is because there are differentiating characteristics that are not widely understood.

It’s worth noting at the outset that a purchasing decision maker can choose a different brand or manufacturer of components than the overhead crane.   Sometimes the wrong hoist is chosen because the crane salesperson insists on their brand being used and/or the end user isn’t equipped with

Don’t wait for an accident to happen before planning what to do next.

In the event of an overhead crane accident, a well-rehearsed procedure should be put into operation, says Tad Dunville.

Before getting into what one should do in the important minutes, hours, days and weeks after an overhead crane accident, let’s look briefly at the causes of such catastrophes, first, to outline how easy it is for things to go wrong and, second, to remind readers of the checklist in an effort to keep this blog redundant for as many people as possible.

The vast majority of accidents are down to operator or human error. This can be a result of poor

Putting a solid, relevant contract in place is key to successful and timely installation of an overhead crane, says Tad Dunville, director of corporate development at Ace World Companies.

This is the third installment of a three-part blog. The first article guided purchasing decision-makers on putting together an overhead crane specification, and the second helped them compare bids, this one covers contract negotiation once a supplier has been chosen.

The incentive to write this article was to positively influence even one more overhead crane purchaser to give due attention to negotiating contract terms with their chosen supplier or manufacturer. Too many take a standard document from their legal department or outside counsel and the same piece

There’s much to gain from collaboration with peers, especially through a respected trade association, says Tad Dunville, director of corporate development at Ace World Companies.

Like a lot of stories, this one starts with a boy looking up to his grandfather.

I’m a fourth generation crane guy and I always recollect a tale my father, Larry Dunville, used to tell me about when his father (my grandfather) was teaching him about cranes. My grandfather plucked a made-up spec for a crane out of the air and asked Larry to come up with a proposal. My grandfather immediately wrote down his costs on a scrap of paper and stuffed it in his top pocket, while Larry went away to look at his

Once proposals have been gathered, it’s time to compare them and select the supplier of the right overhead crane for the facility in question, says Tad Dunville, director of corporate development at Ace World Companies.

This is the second installment of a two-part blog. Where the first article guided purchasing decision-makers on putting together an overhead crane specification, this part helps them compare bids for buying a crane. It assumes that the guidance in the first blog has been followed and the proposals closely match the tailored criteria as outlined in the spec.

First, be mindful that selecting a crane represents a fantastic opportunity for a facility and the individual/s responsible for the decision. As I said in the first part

Getting the right overhead crane starts by putting together a comprehensive specification, says Tad Dunville, director of corporate development at Ace World Companies.

This is the first of a two-part blog. This article helps end users put together a specification that will steer them through the potential minefield that it can feel like when sourcing a new crane. The second part looks at comparing proposals from crane manufacturers and builders, once they have submitted their bids against that tailored criteria.

The subject is important in that there are very few experts out there when it comes to buying overhead cranes. A purchasing decision maker might only ever have the requirement to buy, say, two cranes in their whole career. In many cases there

Meeting OSHA requirements is only a starting point, says Tad Dunville, director of corporate development at Ace World Companies.

This blog is primarily targeted at those who work in facilities that have overhead cranes, but the message can be applied to a multitude of industries and sectors regardless of the equipment they operate.

Consider that OSHA has over 2,000 inspectors responsible for the health and safety of 130 million workers, employed at more than 8 million worksites around the USA. That translates to about one compliance officer for every 59,000 workers.

Imagine the varied types of equipment that an inspector oversees even on a weekly basis, let alone throughout a year or a career with clipboard in hand. Equipment related to

In his latest blog, Tad Dunville, director of corporate development at Ace World Companies, outlines the importance of training following installation of new lifting equipment.

On a number of occasions recently I’ve had to drop everything, travel to the airport and get to an end user’s facility following problems that have been encountered with newly installed overhead lifting equipment. In every case, and in nearly all instances of this kind I’ve seen throughout my career, such issues could have been avoided if the facility had invested in training their staff to operate the new piece of machinery.

Honestly, it would be safer to employ a novice to operate a new crane than give the controls to an operator who has worked with an

Industry should take a more proactive, hands-on approach to inspection of overhead cranes, says Tad Dunville, director of corporate development at Ace World Companies.

Inspection is like accounting; it’s hugely important, yet widely derided. When people going home to their families at night is at stake, corners shouldn’t be cut. When downtime can cost $100k/day or even per hour, a managerial employee risks their P&L and their job by shirking inspections and follow-up repairs. But such short-sightedness is commonplace with overhead crane inspection.

I’ve read many articles on this subject and most have generally been aligned to conformity with OSHA standards. I understand why people do that, but I’m going to go against the grain and suggest industry should go above and beyond

The duty cycle of cranes is often misunderstood and some suppliers use that to their advantage, says Tad Dunville, director of corporate development at Ace World Companies.

This blog sets out to help those buying overhead cranes to understand duty cycle so they can make informed purchasing decisions that lead to economic and safe operation of equipment over a long lifetime of ownership.

There are two ways of rating a piece of equipment—capacity and duty cycle. It’s clearly important to observe the capacity of a crane and select a lifting technology that fits with the weight of load it is installed to lift. It’s also generally accepted that a crane should be chosen to fit its environment, the shape of load, and distance