Here at Hird we can’t resist quoting a Greek philosopher or two to justify the lifting equipment we supply. And we’re at it again with the Product of the Month for June.
The product is the Oktopus GGA-E-B 2500 ovH counterbalance lifting beam. Which got us thinking about the concept of balance.
Balance – it’s all Greek
Balance in nature, a balanced diet, a balanced view of the world. Balance between yin and yang. Us humans are always looking for the point at which one think tips into another, or doesn’t.
You can blame Greek philosopher Herodotus for this.
He wrote about the apparent balanced relationship between predators and prey. And because everyone thought the Greeks were the brainboxes of the civilised world, the concept has stuck.
In reality, it turns out the concept of balance in nature is all Greek. Nature is dynamic (otherwise we wouldn’t have global warming). Everything is changing all the time.
So we need to create our own balancing acts.
Counterbalance lifting beam
Which is where the Oktopus GGA-E-B 2500 ovH counterbalance lifting beam, from German manufacturer Wirth, comes in.
It leads a new generation of lifting machines designed to make it much easier to install glazing panels and other materials into buildings that have large overhanging structures.
A good example was the use of the Oktopus GGA-E-B 2500 counterbalance lifting beam to install glass in the entrance of the newly-refurbished head office of Northumberland County Council in Morpeth.
The glass had to be installed under a two-metre overhang at the bottom of a slope.
The solution was to place a 40t mobile crane on the top of the slope and combine the Oktopus GGA-E-B 2500 with two types of glass lifter, also hired from Hird, the Woods Powr-Grip MRTA8 and the Woods Powr-Grip P11104.
This allowed the glass to be moved under the overhang, right to the aperture it needed to be fitted into.
Dynamic glass lifting
The Oktopus GGA-E-B 2500 is a long steel beam – 6m long to be precise.
The beam is suspended from a lifting arm that can travel along a large proportion of its length. This is combined with a set of counterbalance weights that can also be positioned to precisely balance the beam.
In this way, overhangs of different lengths can be accommodated. For example, for an overhang of 1.5m, the Oktopus GGA-E-B 2500 can lift its maximum safe working load of 2500kg. For an overhang of 3m it can still lift up to 700kg.
That load can be a glass sheet held by a vacuum lifter or it could be any other materials, such as steel beams, curtain wall facades or stonework, that needs to be presented to a location on a building below an overhang, whether it be a roof soffit or protruding floor.
Modern lifting solution
As such, the Oktopus GGA-E-B 2500 is far more in keeping with our modern view of world as a dynamic system.
The counterbalance lifting beam can be set up to lift many different types of loads, of different weights into overhangs of different depths.
It can be used in conjunction with different types of cranes, for example Hird Maeda spider cranes.
Hird Valla pick and carry cranes, or with mobile cranes, also available for hire from Hird. It can also be lifted by site tower cranes.
The Oktopus GGA-E-B 2500 counterbalance lifting beam has wireless remote control so the operator can be positioned in the best location to control the lift.
Optimal glass installation
It is proving very useful indeed on glass lifting projects – allowing glazing installers to save time and improve productivity, while reducing manual handling and installation costs.
Hird has a wide range of vacuum glass lifters to select from to ensure clients have the best combination of equipment to carry out glass installation optimally.
If you are looking for a dynamic solution to glass and material lifting challenges in confined and overhanging spaces, talk to Hird about the Oktopus GGA-E-B 2500 counterbalance lifting beam – available nationally via our four regional operational hubs
Email: [email protected]
Northern
01482 227333
Central
01302 341659
Western
01384 900388
Southern
0203 174 0658
