Safety should not go against the grain when manufacturing forklift drum handling attachments

Did you know that steel has a grain direction, like wood? Many metals, including steel, is made up of many crystalline structures, called grains. When steel goes through a rolling mill, these grains become orientated into a grain flow, running along the directing of rolling.

This knowledge can be critically important for health and safety reasons when forging or bending the steel into manufactured shapes. Bending steel perpendicular to the grain flow can prevent metal failure or cracking under pressure.

Grab-O-Matic drum handling gear: all UK-sourced parts

At St Clare Engineering, we’ve been making our Grab-O-Matic drum handling fixtures for forklift trucks for more than 50 years. We use the finest quality components which we source as locally as possible to our factory in Eastleigh and assemble by hand.

The Grab-O-Matic gripping jaws, which clamp onto a drum’s rim, are forged in Sheffield by a company that appreciates the importance of grain direction. They ensure each jaw component is forged  into shape perpendicular to the grain flow.

Lifetime guarantee

For these reasons, the gripping jaws we manufacture have a lifetime guarantee so long as the gripping head is maintained by us, according to our recommended schedule.

Unfortunately, flattery is the best compliment and there are products out there which may not have the same level of care put into their manufacture. For such a health-and safety critical item it’s important that your forklift truck fittings won’t fail at the wrong moment.

St Clare Engineering and Grab-O-Matic

St Clare Engineering Ltd is a family business. We have been manufacturing a range of specialist, high-quality fork lift truck drum attachments under the Grab-O-Matic trade name since 1958, to lift, move and tilt drums of various shape, size and weight.

We supply drum handling equipment to the oil, chemical, logistics and engineering industries globally, from the Arctic Circle to the Arabian Gulf. All components are manufactured in the UK and every unit is fabricated, hand-assembled and inspected at our factory in Eastleigh, Hampshire.

Andy Bow – St Clare Engineering Ltd
Tel: 02380 643402
Fax: 02380 642189
Email: sales@stclare-engineering.co.uk
Web: www.stclare-engineering.co.uk