RUD Chain, Inc. - News

European Tool & Mould Making April 2009 Developing and Supplying Lifting Points for 30 Years, RUD Ketten Strives to Ensure Safe Industrial Handling Company Focus: This Issue's Featured Supplier More than 30 years ago, RUD Ketten Rieger & Dietz GmbH u. Co. KG, the specialist in safety lifting points, deposited its first patents to claim protection for both the bolt-on and the weldable version of the company’s secure lifting eyes. Back then, it was the coal mining industry that provided the source of inspiration for the company’s technical developments. An examination of all frequently occurring serious and fatal mining injuries revealed that the incidents resulted mainly from broken DIN 580 eyebolts and the inadequate design of what the German liability insurance association for the mining industry referred to as “self-made weld-on sheet metal or wire constructions.” The association banned the use of DIN 580 eyebolts and asked for all eyebolts used subsequently to have a safety rating against breakage of at least 4 in the worst-case load direction. Hundreds of thousands of the first versions of the weldable RBS load ring and the bolt-on RBG that RUD serially produced have been sold over the past 30 years and have been proven under the toughest conditions. The working load of these lifters has been increased during that time, lately up to 50 metric tons for the weldable ring and 150 metric tons for the bolted type. The idea of using the safety lifting point was subsequently adopted by the machine-building, ship-building, and automobile industries in turn, as well as by mould and die makers. Today, almost no industry in which safety lifting points might be used does not employ them. According to RUD, most production designers and cost-conscious purchasing managers now are fully aware that employing the lifting points it supplies can reduce the costs of handling heavy tools and other objects considerably. Benefits can be realized during the entire manufacturing process, from raw material reception through final assembly—in fact, right up to the moment that the product has to be taken out of service and sent to recycling. In addition, over the past three decades, the degree of safety during handling has been improved steadily and tremendously. The wide-ranging market for RUD’s lifting points has generated requests for a large variety of special solutions, many of which later evolve into serially manufactured products. RUD has developed more than 270 different lifting points and will certainly design others. Of this total, some 70% of the products in the portfolio are for bolting and the rest for welding on. Most of these types are patent-protected or trademarked. This is to enable RUD to survive as the market leader and to prevent competitors from trying to avoid design costs and provide cheap knockoffs of doubtful quality. Of its numerous patents, RUD Ketten chooses to emphasize two especially. One is for the PowerPoint Collection (the name is protected also), the first universal lifting point that can be loaded with the maximum working load even in the worst-case direction—that is, at 90° from the surface to which bolted or welded. The system’s double ball bearings and clevis-hook connection make this possible. Also notable is the patent for wear markings that indicate when lifting elements should be disposed. This innovation is an important distinguishing characteristic both of lifting points used in wear-intensive applications and of RUD’s state-of-the-art VIP and ICE sling chain systems. ________________________________________ RUD Ketten Rieger & Dietz GmbH u. Co. KG Aalen, Germany ________________________________________ Tool-Moldmaking.com Site contents copyright © 2009 by Access Communications Inc. 30765 Pacific Coast Highway PMB 351 Malibu, CA 90265-3643 USA Tel. +1 805 988-0465 • Fax +1 310 317-7350

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