RA Rodriguez slewing rings integral to Lifting Products’ slew jib cranes

Quality engineering component supplier RA Rodriguez has provided Lifting Products with three slewing rings, which have been used in custom slew jib cranes.

The cranes were designed for a water industry application, but Lifting Products plans to make them a standard product going forward.

Based in Flintshire, Lifting Products is a leading supplier of standard and bespoke industrial lifting equipment. The solutions-based company serves a range of industries including aerospace, automotive, manufacturing, water management and flood defence. In this case, Lifting Products was providing G&H Engineering with slew jib cranes to be installed at a client’s water treatment works.

Lifting Products had not used slewing rings in any of its previous solutions. Managing director, James Porter, explains that once the design was complete, some expert support was required: “We put a design together for [our Slew Jib Cranes] and we spoke to a few companies to find a slew ring that would do the job. Dave Young came back really quickly with the technical guidance that we needed to confidently use the product on our system.”

RA Rodriguez offers a range of slewing bearings and slew drives for light to heavy duty applications, depending on the needs of the client. Dave Young, RA Rodriguez’s bearings product manager, was on hand to assist Lifting Products throughout the process.

“The perception is often that a ‘bigger’ bearing is required, but speaking with James and getting his application and load parameters, we were able to offer an ex stock solution which was readily available at a smaller overall envelope than was originally envisaged,” says Young.

The slew jib cranes were successfully installed for G & H Engineering’s client at the end of 2022. Porter was satisfied with the end result, saying: “These slew jib cranes will allow the client to lift water pumps out of wells. They will then be able to rotate the jib around up to 360 degrees with the slew ring which works really well.”

Robert Hood, project manager at G&H Engineering, concurs: “Our clients are impressed with the slewing jibs. It’s a good bit of engineering, it’s been well thought out and it works. It does the job it was designed to do.”

With the success of the custom slew jib cranes, Lifting Products plans to offer them as a standard product in the future.