Drum Handling with our Swivel Hook

Published by Lindsay Freeman at August 31, 2021

What exactly is Drum Handling with our Swivel Hook? The customer below needed to pick up and dump contents from their drums, however the drums were not perfectly round. Normally we would use our Squeeze-O-Turn tooling, but had to develop a new design in order to safely grip the product. Our engineering team designed a swivel hook system that allows the drum handles to be gripped at multiple locations.

For this application, drums (20″ in diameter x 30″ tall x 150 pounds) are received on pallets. These are stacked 4 to a layer. After the strapping and banding are removed, the pallets are placed on a weight scale. Here the lifter can service the individual containers that need to be picked up from the pallet. With the gross weight, the operator can use the lifter to remove a drum from the pallet. The weight difference between the gross weight and the removed drum weight will be the weight for the removed drum. This process is repeated to determine each individual drum weight. Because it may be desirable to access any point on the pallet from the front of the pallet, we proposed a counterbalance lifter with short front legs (8″) and a long boom to reach the backside of the pallet. This required the drums to be picked up with chains located on a boom, as well as, counter weights located on the back end of the lifter.

The operator, when in need of a drum, would manually connect the hook to the drum handles. Once connected, the operator would use the powered lift of the lifter to raise/lower the container. With this design it does not matter if the handles are aligned since the chain is flexible. To secure the container during transport the lifter has a bracket that will engage the container wings and keep it from swinging.

Click HERE to see our portable lifter line options, as well as, HERE to find additional details about our Cranes and Manipulators product line.