These include confined pipeline trenches, soft ground, uneven earthworks and vehicle accident recovery areas.
Such conditions – including wet and sandy conditions common throughout Australia and New Zealand – can create hazards for conventional lifting technologies where there is insufficient room overhead to employ suitable cranes, even if they can be brought overland to a remote site. Sometimes also there is insufficient stability underfoot to employ lifters that produce high point loads both on the ground and on the object being lifted.
The latest Pronal range of CLT lifting cushions from Air Springs Supply – which can be easily transported by 4wd or helicopter – is one of a range of Pronal elastomer products that can overcome the safety and difficulty issues by delicately raising irregular loads with optimum safety and flexibility. They can gently raise heavy and irregular loads ranging from road and rail vehicles, pipelines and plant, through to beams, bridge components, building components, machinery and resource development structures and maritime vessels and structures and machinery used in resource exploration and development.
The CLT cushions – which won the Best Practice in WH&S category of the latest national Australian Bulk Handling Awards – are part of a wider range of tough Pronal specialist lifters from Air Springs Supply, ranging from ultra-thin bags (just 20mm thick deflated) that can lift weights of more than 60 tons, through to vulcanised cushions constructed from a specially formulated fabric coated with synthetic rubber. Pronal lifters are also available in cylindrical, stackable and customised configurations to suit conditions on remote production and exploration sites.
"Pronal products are relied upon globally to function safely in the most arduous conditions. They are used by militaries and civil defence and industrial emergency services to hoist loads as difficult as damaged aircraft and immobilised locomotives and heavy trucks. So, they are engineered to top quality and strength standards," says James Maslin, National Sales and Marketing Manager for Air Springs Supply, which is national distributor for Pronal products.
Pronal bags combine the advantages of high durability and power with gentle, precisely controlled lifting that can spread the load over broader surfaces of the object being lifted, rather than focusing the power on point loads.
