When a small parcel arrived on my desk marked ‘personal’, I rushed to open it (in my job, a parcel invariably means a gift or free sample). Imagine my surprise when it appeared to contain a perfectly detailed miniature scale model of an air hoist. Delving further I found a letter from Toku, the Japanese hoist manufacturer: “Please find enclosed our new 250kg air hoist for you to evaluate.” My initial reaction, having been involved with pneumatic hoists for more than 20 years, was one of surprise and disbelief. How could anything so small and lightweight be capable of lifting 250kg? Abandoning what I was doing, I checked the chain – 4mm x 12mm and minimum break load of 2.03t, so the chain was more than adequate.
Disrupting our normal workshop operations, and circumventing the chain of command I cornered the works foreman; as I had to see a load on the hoist as soon as possible. Needless to say, the foreman was as sceptical as myself and persuaded me that we should limit the initial load to 50kg so as not to damage the hoist.
Thirty minutes later, our scepticism had turned to astonishment, and our normal workshop activities had ground to a halt as one engineer after another drifted over to the test machine to see what was going on. By this time we had applied a load of 420kg to the hoist and it still had not stalled.
The full test data which we obtained were as follows: • Operating pressure was 6.3 Bar, flow 11.7 l/sec through a 3/8 inch air line. The hoist lifted 250kg at a speed of 9m/min.
• The total weight of the hoist with 3m lift height was only 7kg and its closed height a mere 305mm.
In air hoist terms we think that the TCR 250 is as revolutionary as the Mini was to the automobile industry, or the Walkman to the audio industry.
The first production models are available with both cord and pendant control options. A 500kg (TCR 500) two fall version of the hoist is also available, and a range of suitably compact and lightweight air operated trolleys have been developed by Red Rooster in Scotland to complement the new hoist range.
The TCR 250 and TCR 500 hoists are not light duty hoists nor has specification or build quality been compromised. What we have is a remarkable example of Japanese innovation which we believe has moved the goal posts for future air hoist design.
