Spartan has introduced hoists and platforms with a greater emphasis on safety and technology. Vikram Mehta elaborates on the innovations from Spartan.
The Mumbai-based Spartan Engineering Industries Pvt Ltd is one of the most preferred names in India?s lifting and material handling sector. The ISO 9001-2008 certified manufacturer places great emphasis on technology and quality control with embedded safety features in all its products.

Multi-functional rack & pinion material hoist
In Spartan?s material handling series, there are five variants of load carrying capacity, 500 kg, 1 tonne, 1.2 tonne, 1.5 tonne and 2 tonne. Its core competency lies in the multi-functionality of the machines in carrying a variety of construction material during the process of construction, right from the beginning till the end. Multi-functionality means various accessories like cage through which carry material like bricks, sand, mortar etc can be carried. Among the various attachments are a revolutionary horizontal rebar attachment for safe transit of steel bars and a roof attachment, which can carry labour through cage.

Rebar attachment
This revolutionary rebar attachment carries up to 12 m long rebars safely. This attachment avoids heavy investment in purchasing, erection and dismantling of tower crane. It offers easy, fast and efficient operation in terms of:

Loading: Rebar of different sizes up to 12 m length uniformly are loaded in the attachment. Overloading of rebar is avoided by special over load alarm. Easy and convenient to load rebar. Mechanical locking system ensures rebar attachment doesn?t turn on its own while traveling.

Travelling: Floor selector is provided for selecting desired floor to travel. Manual winching of hoist is also possible. Robust design of rebar ensures no swing of attachment while travelling.

Rotation: When the attachment reaches the desired floor, it has to be rotated using the lever extension provided. Rebar limits switch, ensures the main supply to hoist is cut-off once rebar attachment leaves the parking position to avoid accident, once it is rotated to unload.

Unloading: The rotation is directed to reach a desired place for safe and convenient unloading. Easy and comfortable unloading of rebars is done by simply lifting the rebars and pulling it on the building.

New Aviator passenger and material hoist
Spartan?s new Aviator premium series machine?s design adheres to CE safety standards. The machines are aesthetically designed adhering to world class standards. The cage and all sheet metal components are made of galvanised sheet and then powder coated for rust-free and longer life. The masts and wall ties are also galvanised for rust-free long life.

The product uses high quality German make NORD/LENZE gearbox motors with two years warranty for trouble-free operations, not to mention, a highly reliable European design centrifugal brake.

The other features include floor selector with LCD display which displays all safety functions and errors, use of higher capacity VFD drives of Schneider Altivar 71 model and resistance box in premium ?P? models. The VFD and PLC bypass provision is given in control panel. A separate circuit is given to operate hoist temporarily if there is any problem in either VFD of PLC. The load cell is provided with alarm bell electrical cut-off which prevents overloading of hoist. Further, the control panel door is made of stainless steel material to protect against rust, dust, radiation and gives good aesthetic value. A tubular fan is provided for ventilation inside the cage. A tamper-proof metal keypad provided per floor selection along with 4-inch colour touch screen display shows the floor selected for travel and displays the number of hours the hoist is operated.

The product uses PLC from reputed firms like Siemens which makes the panel compact by reducing number of conductors making fault finding and troubleshooting easier and fast. The other inclusions are an Italian make ?Finder? SMPS (Switched Mode Power Supply) to convert electric power efficiently at 24 Volt DC, thus providing stable power supply to the entire control panel circuit and reducing the number of breakdowns caused due to unstable power supply.

A full height base enclosure is provided with easy-to-use opening doors with mechanical lock for additional safety. The reliable safety features include top, bottom and final limit switches, entry and exit door limit switches, trap door limit switches, cable jamming limit switches, rack searching limit switch, slow down limit switch, base enclosure door limit switch, mechanical lock for entry cage, collapsible side hand rail for exit ramp, mechanical safety rack lock for safe erection, centrifugal parachute brake, electromagnetic motor brakes, motorised erection jib for mast. Mast addition from inside the cage and a motor sheet metal guard is provided to protect motor from falling debris, an erection platform limit and switch and rubber buffer pads.

Rope suspended platform (SRP)
?W? type frame in SRP 100: The special ?W? Type? frame gives access to labour even at building corners. It ensures that, with minimum distance between roof supporting device, the entire 7.5 m platform length can be used.

Pin type fixtures: Pin type fixtures are used instead of conventional nut and bolt fittings. This makes the assembly and disassembly easy and fast. It doesn?t require support or any tools which reduces labour efforts and time.

Flexible platforms: They are of seven different combinations - 2.5, 3.5, 4, 5, 6, 6.5, 7.5 m. They ensure installation of SRP in most of the sites to cater.

Tilting roof type: Safety lock is a separate mechanical unit that automatically locks safety wire rope when the working wire rope breaks or suspended platform tilts to its limits.

Centrifugal speed limiter: Centrifugal speed limiter is a safety device which restricts one platform to go beyond the specified or rated speed and also avoids free fall. New and updated motor cover: This ensures protection of entire gearbox and motor assembly from falling debris, paints and especially from wet concrete mixture or mortar which solidifies later and becomes difficult to remove.

Sun roof system (optional): It provides a protection against sun for labour or operator working at heights. This reduces the fatigue of labour and avoids sun stroke when working in the sun for a long time.

Special anti-swing device (optional): It is a special safety device designed for total control. The swing movement of the platform with rope is fixed on top of building and passes through the rollers in the platform and anchored to the counter weight of frame provided in the bottom. It pushes the platform and restricts the building platforms front and side swinging movement.

The author is Managing Director, Spartan Engineering Industries Pvt Ltd.