Equipment rigging is the design and installation of equipment needed to help move heavy machinery. Heavy machinery can be slid, rolled, rotated, lifted, and transported. Rigging is used to help protect machinery and the sourrounding environment from damage.

Rigging is also the type of tools and equipment used to rig machinery and other objects. The use of wire rope clips, blocks, pulleys, slings, thimbles, links, shackles, hooks, hoists, spreader bars, eye bolts, and turnbuckles all assist riggers in the job of relocating heavy machinery. Rigging equipment allows riggers to apply working physics to wire ropes, standard ropes, and straps to distribute weight evenly and control mostion as an object is moved.

Rigging Assists as Other Equipment Does the Lifting

Equipment rigging is attached to powerful vehicles and other devices made for lifting. Forklifts, moving cranes, and stationary cranes lift as the equipment rigging cradles the object being lifted. Heavy duty lifts can easily lift machinery from 5,000 to 100,000 pounds. Some cranes can lift over 18 tons.

Check out the expert crane rigging on this video.

 

The People Doing the Rigging

Riggers are the people who design and install equipment rigging and ultimately monitor the moving of the machinery. They are professionals who make every attempt to promote safety and protect the machinery and anyone ivolved in the move. Riggers are highly skilled in moving strategy, estimation, mathematics, geometry, forces, physics, and more.

Riggers can compute mechanical advantage, which is a measure of how force is amplified by using a tool or other mechanics to move heavy objects. The force you apply to lift or move something can me multiplied by using a mechanical advantage. For example, a system of rigging and mechanics that allows you to exert only 250 pounds to move 1000 pounds of weight has a mechanical advantage of 4:1.

Riggers often work with millwrights who are experts in construction, installation, alignment, and dismantling of heavy machinery. Millwrights can fabricate temporary and permanent supporting structures to aid in the rigging, moving, placement, or safety of machinery, production lines, automation, or other systems.

Safety Is Most Important

With many professionals in place, heavy equipment owners can feel assured their machinery will be relocated in a safe and expert manner. They look to professionals like those at Atlas to minimize downtime and keep valuable resources protected.