, Taylor "Big Red" has expanded its range of specialized attachments for steel mills and service yards. Its TS-9972 Reach Stacker can now be equipped with a hydraulically powered 45 ton coil grab, designed and built by Winkle Industries, to load steel coils onto rail cars and trucks.
The new coil-handler was developed when a mill customer requested ideas for a mobile solution to replace its traditional lattice boom crane, according to Pete Johnson, account manager at Taylor Machine Works.
"Our customer recognized that mounting a coil grab on a mobile platform would give them much more flexibility than their mill crane could offer," Johnson explains. "A mobile loader allows them to use satellite loading docks instead of limiting their loading capability to one fixture inside the mill. Moving coils around the yard and loading them onto rail cars can be completed in one step by one piece of equipment. With Taylor's Reach Stacker as the platform, they get a multi-use tool that can switch attachments to perform various tasks in and around the mill. The TS-9972 can go anywhere a truck can go to move or load material," Johnson continued.
Two Tracks to One Solution
At the same time Johnson was investigating potential solutions for this customer, Winkle's Matt Wroblewski was having similar conversations at the same mill. As regional sales manager, Wroblewski was very familiar with the many material-handling devices used in mill-duty applications. The mill described its plans to expand its facility, which called for removal of the lattice crane.
Like Johnson, Wroblewski recognized that the Reach Stacker could be the ideal platform for a mobile alternative to the fixed crane. Their common interest quickly brought the two men together.
"We actually evaluated our entire range of lift trucks and material handlers before we zeroed in on the Reach Stacker," recalls Johnson. "In the end, the TS-9972 was the clear choice. Its unique platform combines everything this application needs in high reach, lifting capacity, hydraulics, and visibility for the operator. All we needed was the coil-grab attachment from Winkle."
Combined Expertise
The engineering departments of both companies collaborated closely to bring their specialized products together into a new solution for the mill. Paul Predagovic, director of engineering for Winkle, could draw on vast experience in custom coil-handling equipment.
"We have developed many, many electrically driven coil grabs over the years," he says. "The challenge here was to provide a hydraulically powered grab that fit the existing capacities of the Taylor platform. It became relatively simple when we discovered that the TS-9972 was already equipped to provide the load rotation, sideshift movement, height, and visibility to allow precise movement and placement of the 90,000 lb coils."
While Taylor's sales engineer, Lamar Hailey, worked closely with the mill to detail the project's requirements, he credits Denny Bucklew, their design engineer, for achieving a successful solution. The pair already had experience in customizing the Reach Stacker for heavy lifts. A previous project, in which the TS-9972 was used to assist with the assembly and installation of towers for wind farms, had led to a versatile lifting beam that nicely fit the needs of the coil grab.
Mobility, Precision, and Safety
As Hailey describes it, "…as part of the tower assembly process this beam has a center hook and two hooks at opposite ends for moving tower sectors and steel plates respectively."
Using Taylor's lifting beam as a starting point, the Winkle team built onto it, making a coupler for the grab. It would supply the hydraulic routing and rotation capability. Limit switches were designed into both the engagement and disengagement circuits of the grab, adding an extra element of safety as well as reduced stress on the hydraulic components.
To ensure accurate placement of the steel coils onto rail car bunks and trucks, the cab provides operators with a 10 ft high vantage point to see the target area directly. The cab can slide up to 96 in. along the length of the chassis, allowing the operator to sit back from the load when traveling or move up close to the rail car or truck when positioning the coil. The 3-point lifting beam provides up to 90 deg rotation to align coils as needed, either on the I-Horizontal or I-Vertical position to fit the orientation of rail car or truck saddles.
Versatile Steel Handler, and More
The lifting beam, attached to the Reach Stacker, uses a coupler to attach the coil grab. The lifting beam and the coil grab are easily interchangeable with other Taylor attachments such as its container handlers, C-hooks, and probes.
"For the coil grabs we didn't have to add anything or do anything special to the Reach Stacker except make the adapter," Pete Johnson reports. "The hydraulics, the 24 V electrical, and the 3 point beam were already there. Any of our customers with a TS-9972 in their fleet could add this coil-loading capability without needing any changes to their existing equipment."
With the addition of an onboard generator system, the TS-9972 and its lifting beam can also be adapted to attach one or multiple lifting magnets – another of Winkle's material handling specialties.
Taylor's director of sales, Donnie Woodruff, has also expressed his satisfaction with the collaboration between the two companies. The Winkle coil grab is now offered by Taylor as a standard production item for the TS-9972. Within two weeks of the first unit going into service, Taylor was receiving orders for more of the mobile coil-loading systems, and several are already in operation.
"We are proud to be of service and honored to partner with the Taylor team," says Winkle president Joe Schatz, agreeing with Woodruff's assessment of the partnership. "We see tremendous potential for mobile hydraulic grabs in other sectors including aluminum and paper. We look forward to expanding the versatility of the TS-9972 with more custom applications in mill facilities and service yards, rail yards and seaports. We work well together and there's no shortage of opportunity."
