PHL Hydraulics Ireland Ltd has used 16 cube jacks for the synchronised lifting of a 50m x 7m racking system weighing 160 ton at a large industrial facility. It is believed to be the largest array of Enerpac SCJ-50 Cube Jacks for a single lift. Completed in just over 1 hour, the steel racking was lifted to a height of 2.2m.
Lifting large racking systems can be a logistical nightmare involving forklift trucks and chain blocks. Other approaches can be cumbersome such as large scissor tables and electro-mechanical screw jacks. The array of Enerpac Cube Jacks is powered by a single split flow pump, making the process simpler and quicker.
The SCJ-50 Cube Jack is a compact and portable hydraulic solution for synchronised incremental lifting, holding and lowering of heavy loads. It uses a base lifting frame and self-aligning, lightweight steel cribbing blocks to provide high-capacity and stable lifting. Steel cribbing blocks have several benefits over wood cribbing, including fewer cribbing components to handle and align, lifting up to 8 times faster lifting, and lifting higher than traditional cribbing methods.
“Given the large number of racking systems to be installed, the time savings using cube jacks are considerable. Using other lifting methods would have meant more labour and costs as well as being slower and more hazardous – everything would have to be built at a height.
“The ability of the cube jack to hold the load is important when using this number of cube jacks. Typically, we would assign one person per four cube jacks to handle the steel cribbing blocks,” says Damien Lynch, managing director, PHL Hydraulics Ireland Ltd.
