January, or the beginning of the year, is the best period of performing maintenance services for most industries. To welcome this season, Manufacturers’ Monthly assesses the benefits of KITO’s built-in condition monitoring system for general and preventative maintenance.
In 1923, PWB began manufacturing chains in Australia. After over 90 years in Australia, Japanese heavyweights KITO Corporation joined forces with PWB to form the company as it stands today, with over 200 years of combined experience.
The safety of all users is at the core of what the company aims to achieve, not just within the organisation, but for the lifting industry overall. In conjunction with safety, KITO PWB has invested heavily in designing products that reduce downtime and foresee future problems before they happen.
With this in mind, Glenn Morgan, national hoist specialist, explained the company’s advanced form of maintenance.
The inverter control in KITO PWB’s range of electric hoists is a dual speed variable frequency (VFD), which controls both hoist and trolley for optimum speed adjustability as well as lifting and lowering accuracy.
The technology incorporates an easily accessible condition monitoring system via an hour meter and operation counter, which records the data of the number of hours used and the total number of times operated.
“It is all set out in the manual. It tells you when you need to change the oil, after how many operations you need to check the brake. It will even tell you when the Major Inspection is due, this is based on actual usage, not on calendar years,” Morgan said.
“This provides a pathway for appropriate preventive maintenance to be conducted to ensure the hoist is operational for when you need it.”
Operation-based maintenance helps to increase the operational life of hoists, decrease the maintenance cost and the amount of maintenance time on hoists and cranes, lower the risk of breakdowns and unplanned downtime, optimise operation and productivity and energy efficiency.
“Having the inverter as a standard feature is something that no other quality hoist has in the market,” he noted.
Hoists with condition monitoring cover the full range of hoisting applications, with the powerful – ER2 Electric Chain Hoist & MR2 Motorised Trolley, the effective – EQ, EQS Electric Chain Hoist & MR2Q Motorised Trolley and the high-performance – RY Electric Wire Rope Hoist.
The standard inverter control for the dual-speed hoist provides soft start and soft stop to minimise impact and reduce shock loading, but can also customise the speeds meet the customer requirements.
A low-load high-speed function on the EQ, EQS & RY Hoists allows for faster lifting speeds at low loads to increase productivity. The smooth start/stop and transition from slow to fast protects the load and supporting structure and reduces load swing and bounce.
In some instances, crane service providers have not promoted KITO products, because of their superior durability. Minimal breakdowns and repairs are required for KITO’s equipment across a long period of time, losing opportunities for providers to make more money off repairs.
“From an end-user point of view, that quality and durability is what they want,” Morgan explained. “End users should be specifying KITO because they know their cost of ownership or runtime costs will be much lower compared to others. When you increase productivity and reduce ongoing repair costs it makes a difference in the long run.
“Lifting is one of the most dangerous things you can do and most people don’t actually give it the attention it deserves,” Morgan added.
“The old adage of a chain is strong as its weakest link applies and KITO is always very conservative with its engineering, always over-engineering something to ensure complete safety. It’s probably this approach which translates to the company being the pinnacle of quality whilst still having a high market share.”
KITO is one of the few hoisting companies that manufactures both its own hoists and its own load chains. On top of that – KITO is the only manufacturer worldwide that nickel-plates its load chains. This combination provides the hoists with the unique benefit of safety and functionality, and excellent reliability.
KITO hoists are built to perform for years of trouble-free service. They are robust and resistant to rough handling conditions. They continue to function well, even at fully rated capacities. Decades of specialised engineering and on-the-job testing has given the KITO team industry-leading intelligence on how to create the world’s sturdiest hoists, component by component.
National hoist business manager, Glenn Morgan, stands by the quality and engineering of the KITO hoist. “Honestly, there is no comparison on the market,” he said.
To support the KITO philosophy in delivering unmatched customer and end user satisfaction, KITO PWB has its own dedicated customisation workshop based at the Australian National Head office in Victoria. This is supported by a specialist team of hoist technicians who build customised lifting solutions not just for the Australian market but also for the greater Oceania region.
The workshop is designed to enable several technicians to be working simultaneously on multiple projects. From designing and fabricating chain buckets, specialised load cells and displays, travel limits, as well as assembling visual and audible alarms, remote control systems, close coupled trolleys and more. Every item passing through the assembly shop is fully function tested in accordance with AS1418 before it leaves the workshop.
No task is too big or too small. KITO PWB thrives on designing and delivering hoist and associated lifting solutions for all applications from small to large and complex challenges.
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