September 2010 eNews
Moving Day Can Be an Uplifting Experience
Inflatable Rubber Lifting Bags Can Move Large Metalworking Machinery
They might just look like flat squares of plain black rubber, but lifting bags from Trelleborg can raise or move huge weights, including many of the large machines used in the metalworking industry. For the past three decades, Trelleborg lifting bags have been used to save lives, freeing people trapped in collapsed buildings and overturned cars. But now, with the launch of a new range aimed at the industrial market, they can be used in any application where lifting, moving, spreading, or fixing is required. The technology behind the lifting bags is based on a vast knowledge of polymer-coated fabrics, in this case natural rubber reinforced with aramid fibers.
The principle of a lifting bag is simple. “You inflate it with compressed air so you can lift a load to a certain height,” says Jacco Vonk, sales manager at the Trelleborg Engineered Systems manufacturing facility in Ridderkerk, the Netherlands, where the lifting bags were developed. “The more height you want, the bigger the bag must be.”
But a bag does not have to be big to lift a heavy weight.
“In our new range, the smallest lifting bag is 150 millimeters long and wide and 22 millimeters thick, but it can lift up to a ton — the weight of a car,” Vonk says. “Compressed air provides enormous power. The largest of our bags can move up to 67 tons, the weight of a military tank, with compressed air at a pressure of only 8 bars.”
Lifting bags are expected to be used mainly instead of hydraulic jacks or cranes. They are much thinner than jacks — between 22 and 25 mm — which means they can be inserted into small spaces. And while cranes are heavy pieces of equipment that need to be specially transported to where they are needed, a lifting bag can be carried under your arm and moved around in any type of vehicle, even a car.
“If a lorry [truck] has crashed, you can put a bag underneath it so that it can be lifted,” says Vonk. “You probably couldn’t do the same with a hydraulic jack, and you’d need to locate a crane and get it to the incident. The bag also inflates quickly, in a matter of seconds, while a hydraulic jack will take longer. Plus, it’s light to carry and there are no moving parts, so no maintenance is required.”
Lifting bags can be used in all kinds of industries: metalworking, offshore oil and gas exploration, mining, construction, and logistics. "There are many hidden markets out there,” says Ruud Bokhout, business development director at Trelleborg Engineered Systems in Ridderkerk. “When you talk to people in different industries, they may not be familiar with the product, but once they find out about it, they almost immediately come up with their own ideas of what they could do with it.”
About the lifting bags
Trelleborg’s lifting bags are made of natural rubber reinforced with aramid fibers, which are stronger, lighter, and more flexible than steel.
The larger the contact area, the greater the lifting power of the bag. There are eight sizes of lifting bags available. The smallest, with a maximum lifting height of 80 mm (3.15 in.), can move a ton. The largest can lift an object up to 67 tons up to 520 mm (20.5 in.). Two lifting bags can be used together to double the lifting height, and various accessories are available. Special orders can be made if quantity is justifiable for Trelleborg.
“The lifting bag is made like a car tire,” says Bokhout. “There’s an airtight inner rubber bag, then on top is an aramid layer absorbing the force and an outer rubber bag protecting it.”
The lifting bags are currently being manufactured in the Trelleborg Engineering Systems facility in Ridderkerk in the Netherlands. The technology is also being transferred to its Chinese facility in Qingdao.
The use of lifting bags
A lifting bag has four different functions:
Lifting: It can raise a load vertically. Upturned vehicles and sections of big structures such as bridges, buildings, or pipelines can be lifted. You can use it instead of a hydraulic jack to change the tires on a car or to lift a heavy metalworking machine to make its maintenance easier.
Pushing: It can push a load sideways. When a building has collapsed, it can shove away slabs of concrete to free people trapped underneath the structure.
Spreading: It can spread two things apart when inserted in a gap between them. In the mining industry, lifting bags are used to crack blocks of stones away from a wall.
Fixing: It can fix a part in place. If you want to make a repair to a piece of machinery, for example, a small lifting bag will help keep components in place while the job is done.
Trelleborg currently does not have a distribution network in the U.S. for the lifting bags, but customers can order directly from Trelleborg Ridderkerk BV in the Netherlands. Email Jacco Vonk, sales manager,
jacco.vonk@trelleborg.com. The company would not provide pricing information.
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