choosing new industrial equipment for your business
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choosing new industrial equipment for your business

How long has it been since you updated the equipment in your industrial business? Have you been paying for repairs several times each year? Do you perform the right maintenance on each piece of equipment? I had made the mistake of using outdated equipment in my CNC machine shop. That aging equipment cost me a lot of money in repairs each year. As the machine got older, the parts for it became more expensive. If you are considering investing in new equipment for your industrial business, take a moment and visit my website. There, you will learn the steps that I walked through when looking for new equipment that wasn't going to cost me a fortune in the long run.

choosing new industrial equipment for your business

The Identification Tag: What It Should Say, And What To Do If It Doesn't

Eddie Barnes

Rigging relies on equipment that is safe to use, and not exceeding a rated load is imperative. The hook being used has to have an identification tag that gives you specific information. If the tag is missing or unreadable, you need to get a hook that does have its tag intact.

What the Tags Need to Have at a Minimum

These tags can be created through die-stamping or similar methods of attachment. They must list the manufacturer's name and the rated load. It doesn't sound like much, but that tells you the safe amount the equipment can lift. And, if you spot another problem, you know which manufacturer to contact. Note that this tag can't be a sticker, tape with handwritten information, or anything of that nature.

Why Not Having This Information Is So Bad

If the equipment is missing this information, that's bad on three counts. One is that you don't know how much the equipment can lift safely. You risk either taking a very long time to get the job done if you're overcautious regarding what it can lift, or causing an accident if you try to lift too much. The second is that the lack of a tag could indicate substandard manufacturing; if the manufacturer didn't bother putting a tag on it, what else didn't they bother to do correctly? The third is that, if the equipment used to have a tag and it wore away, then the equipment could be very old and not that safe to use.

Don't Use the Equipment

No developer or construction crew ever wants to delay a project if they don't have to. However, if you're using equipment that doesn't have enough information on its identification tag (or if the tag is missing) to let you know what the equipment can safely do, you need to stop that part of the project until you can get different equipment with adequate identification labels. Maybe you'll get lucky and get the proper information from the manufacturer of the first set of equipment, but if not, don't use it. Luckily, most equipment is common enough that getting another item won't take long. So, you're not looking at months-long shutdowns, but maybe one part of the project doesn't get done for a day while a rental company delivers another set of rigging hardware.

You never want to use equipment like cranes or rigging gear if you have no idea how much weight it can safely lift. Reach out to a heavy load rigging service in your area to find out more.


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