Professional Manual and Electric Hoists for use on Scaffolding and Construction Projects 

In the building industry, as in any other, any form of automisation is usually welcome as it simplifies many aspects of operation on the building site. It wasn’t so many years ago that the only form of hoists that could be found were manually operated. Nowadays it is almost impossible to find a manually operated hoist on a building site as they have been largely superseded by power motors of various kinds. The only building site where you might stand a chance of finding a manually driven hoist is on single story housing projects where neither height nor weight is a major factor.

The most common types of hoists you will find on UK building sites, especially in large scale-multi story projects, are either pneumatically or electrically driven and use either chains or wire rope to hoist the goods that they need to lift. 

It goes without saying that these types of powerful hoists will minimise the effort needed to operate them, while at the same dramatically increase the pace that which building materials can be transferred irrespective of the number of floors under construction.  

Depending on the size of the project the site manager will need to decide which kind of hoist will suit the job best. If there are a lot of materials to be transported to a large number of floors then the chances are that the manager will opt for an electrically driven wire rope hoist as a pneumatic hoist will not be powerful enough to handle such a task. If the nature of the project is less demanding, then the choice may well be the pneumatically driven chain hoist, which costs next to nothing to operate.

Other considerations that a site manager will need to take into account when specifying which hoist will suit the task best is the comparison of projected maintenance costs to initial investment. In other words if an electric hoist is inexpensive to buy but expensive to maintain it may not make for a worthwhile investment on a site where all the projections indicate that it will be required to work hard and for projected period. Hoists that are susceptible to breakdowns should be shied clear of as whatever cost savings they will secure in the initial purchase will be rapidly cancelled out by the down time they will cause by being out of action even for the shortest period of time. 

Another very important factor that will need to be considered when choosing the ideal hoist for a particular task on a building site is the speed that the hoist will be capable of working at. Obviously the faster the hoist is capable of working at, the more cost efficient it will be. Over the last few years the development of dual speed electrically driven hoists have seen great leaps and bounds in the speedy transportation of men, machinery and building materials throughout a multi-story building project.  

The ability of the operator to accurately control the hoist comes very much into play at this point especially when a particular load has to be very accurately positioned. Doing so at the hoist’s top speed is hardly recommendable, so the hoist has to be slowed down to a minimum speed when it comes to the last few inches of it ascent or descent. This constant practice will place a lot of strain on the hoist’s electric motor, and it is important that the operator, while making use of the slowing down of “ inching” facility as it is generally understands the need not to overdo it.

Having a powerful electric hoist at work on any scale of building project will be an important ingredient in its successful completion. Choosing the correct hoist for the job is as important as operating it correctly so that down time is minimalised.