Doing the Heavy Lifting

High-powered lifting magnets allow workers in steel warehouses, shipyards, manufacturing facilities, and metal working plants to quickly, easily and safely lift, move and manipulate heavy objects.  Workers simply place a lifting magnet over an object made with steel or other magnetic metal and then activate the magnet to hold and move the object. 

Since all objects being moved are not equal, Walker’s created a series of industrial-strength heavy-lift magnetic solutions – including some suspended by large-capacity, remotely operated cranes– to meet a wide variety of needs.  These include:

• The new Total-Coverage Series Magnets designed to meet the special material handling needs required in precision flame, plasma and laser cutting table operations. The TC-Series Magnet will load plates up to 1.75″ thick and after burning, unload cut parts and skeletons in a single lift.After unloading, it is possible to separate the skeleton from the cut parts.These magnets also eliminate time-consuming handling of grabs and chains when loading and unloading a burning table. Unlike mechanical methods, magnetic handling allows users to clear cut parts, unload skeletons and reload with new plates quickly, efficiently, and safely. This eliminates costly idle machine time, which translates into increased production.
• Rectangular lifting systems designed to lift plate, slabs, and billets in compliance with the ASME B30.20 standard for below-the-hook lifting devices. These systems move large plates to and from burning tables, fabricating areas, welding departments, as well as shipping and receiving areas. These magnets can be used individually or in multiples with different types of suspension systems and can be customized for special applications.
• The CE series of circular electric lifting magnets are specially designed for in-plant or outdoor handling of steel plate, bar stock, castings, forgings or machined components. The high strength steel bail and low-carbon steel body work together for maximum magnetic performance.  Additionally, a coiled cord and twist lock adapter offer quick connection to DC power source.
• Bi-Polar magnets lift directly from the center of the load, so no aisle room is required to sling or maneuver a hook. Loads can be stacked as high as the crane allows. The 271 series concentrates the magnetic field, preventing the attraction of adjacent material and making it suitable for handling bundles of pipe, tubing, rebar, and bar stock. The 272 series has a very wide range of applications in the production and handling of plate, structural shapes,castings, forgings, coiled strips, individual and bundled lengths of pipe,tubing, rebar, and bar stock.
• Customizable Spreader Beams lift large objects such as plates, bundles of rebar, tubing,etc., using multiple magnets at a time to maintain a balanced, safe lift. Walker manufactures manual telescoping beams, motorized telescoping beams, rotating beams, and more.

For enhanced magnet performance, Walker offers a Solid-State Controller (SSC) Digital Power Converter that is compatible with all electromagnets and includes the option to have infinitely variable power control. These controllers have fanning/dribble options and are radio control compatible. Additionally, Walker’s systems include Battery Back-Up Units to provide 20 minutes of emergency power to the magnets in the event of an interruption of power to the crane. The charging system monitors both the charging voltage and the charging current. A PLC monitors the data and keeps the batteries at the correct float voltage regardless of line fluctuations.

This complete selection of heavy-lift magnetic systems is a tremendous asset to many different manufacturing and metal businesses, saving time, increasing production capacity, and keeping the workforce safe.