Compare wire rope hoist and chain hoist

Wire rope hoist or chain hoist, which is your choice? Now the main hoist products have wire rope hoist and chain hoist all over the world. How can choose a suitable hoist according to the working condition? It’s very important to compare wire rope hoist and chain hoist.

Wire rope hoist v.s. Chain hoist

1. Volume

• Chain hoist: the winding device is chain and the chain lifting is driven by the rotation of the chain wheel. The axial size of the chain wheel is 1.6 times as wide as that of the chain.
• Wire rope hoist: the winding device is steel wire rope, and the wire rope lifting is driven by the rotation of the drum. Drum length is the main factor to determine the volume. If the lifting height increases, the drum will be lengthened. The volume of wire rope hoist is greater than the same size chain hoist several times or even ten times.

2. Lifting height

• Chain hoist: it’s the hinged connection between link, and the chain bearing is mainly tensile stress. In order to reduce compressive strength of the contact surface between the link and between link and sprocket nest, chain wheel is made 5 or 6 nests.
• Wire rope hoist: Wire rope twine on the drum and produces elastic deformation, the side near the drum by the pressure, and the corresponding surface by the tension, drum diameter smaller, larger amount of deformation of the steel wire rope, wire rope corresponding surface pressure, pull the large. In order to make the force does not exceed to allowable stress of the steel wire rope, diameter of drum to larger, in order to limit deformation of the wire rope. Therefore, design specification requires that electric hoist drum diameter can’t be less than 20 times of the diameter of the steel wire rope

3. Traveling length

• Wire rope hoist: The center line of axis and wire rope hoist trolley running track parallel to the center line.
• Chain hoist: The center line of axis and chain hoist running track can be installed and used at 90 degrees. So in the same condition, under the same track length, the traveling length of chain hoist is longer than wire rope hoist. Even chain hoist axis and the center line of the running track also parallel installation and use, due to the smaller axial, the running distance is much larger. When lifting height is larger, its drum is longer, so the operation distance impact will be even greater.

4. Accuracy

• Wire rope hoist: When lifting, the wire rope on the drum along the axial line winding. Therefore, the hook will along the axis direction of the electric hoist produced horizontal displacement. Lifting height is greater, wire rope on the drum winding more loops, hook horizontal displacement more.
• Chain hoist: No matter the size of the lifting height, the hook will up and down along the plumb line of chain, the hook can be accurately located.

5. Twining device

• Wire rope hoist: Wire rope has certain rigidity. When the no-load of wire rope hoist, wire rope easily slips out of the drum and sheave groove. Especially small weight, the hook has the advantages of light weight, more prone to slip out of groove, cause disorder cable fault. And when the load of wire rope hoist, the weight falls to the support, steel wire rope load tense disappears, the phenomenon also occurs.
• Chain hoist: The chain is hinged, and the chain has no rigidity. So, chain hoist does not exist the above drawbacks of wire rope hoist.

6. Service life

• Wire rope hoist: The wire section is very fine. In humidity larger or acid mist, alkali mist and high temperature environment, it’s easy to break the wire, broken strands, greatly reducing the service life of the rope.
• Chain hoist: The chain section is much larger than the cross-section of the steel wire, even in the harsh environment its life will not be affected too much.

From the above analysis, we can see that under the same conditions, the chain hoist has the advantages of lifting height, running distance, positioning and other aspects. Meanwhile, the service life is long, the potential risk is small, and it is more suitable for extreme weather. Select the right electric hoist for your application not only will save your cost but also will improve the hoist operation safety and your material handling efficiency. Contact us to get the right electric hoist now.