Hired help for heavy lifting on major projects

Rio Tinto Aluminium used the 3 tonne and 6 tonne pneumatic chain hoists at one of its Gladstone operations.

Kennards Lift & Shift says it invested $500,000 in this equipment area last year, and outlaid a further $240,000 for more new units from Germany to meet the mining company's requirement for swift delivery.

There are now about 100 air hoists in the hire fleet, which is valued at $1 million.

The ever expanding range includes machines from 500kg to 20 tonne, with extremely rare 50 tonne and 100 tonne air hoists also available on application. There are various chain lengths to suit the specific job.

Schindler Lifts used the 2.2 tonne winch on Brookfield Multiplex's new, 47-floor City Square project, which will be the new WA home of mining giant, BHP Billiton.

Graham Pagan, project manager for Schindler Lifts, sought a solution to the problem of pulling elevator cables from the bottom to the top of the building as there appeared to be no winch that could do the job.

Kennards Lift & Shift's Perth manager, Felipe Bolivar, "thought outside the square" and purchased a 2.2 tonne winch, which his team modified to meet the job requirements.

The 100m length of 16mm flexible steel wire rope was removed and replaced by 220m of 12mm rope.

Kennards Lift & Shift has hire centres in Brisbane, Sydney, Wollongong, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth.