Chain checking in the USA
US-based Carolina Handling has equipped each of its 200 mobile forklift field service technicians with professional chain wear gauges developed and manufactured in the UK by Letchworth-based FB Chain Ltd.
Chain wear gauges are used by forklift and other materials handling equipment service engineers and technicians to track chain wear at each service. If a chain is shown to have worn excessively it must be replaced.
Richard Ellsworth, Carolina Handling’s Quality Assurance representative, came across the simple to use FB chain wear gauges during an internet search. He found FB Chain’s new website – www.chainweargauge.com. “Our field service technicians had always used a gauge supplied by another chain manufacturer but we were not entirely happy with it. It was not particularly accurate and our field service technicians did not find it an easy device to use,” he says.
Part of the Raymond lift truck sales and servicing network, Carolina Handling’s team of field service technicians are responsible for the maintenance of literally thousands of forklifts throughout North and South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and the central time zone of Florida.
“During sample tests, our field service technicians were very positive about the FB Chain gauges,” says Richard Ellsworth. “They found them easier to work with and liked the fact that the gauges enabled them to measure chain in 0.25 per cent increments. This is very helpful in identifying chain that is wearing quickly so that extra lubrication can be applied. It also gives our field service technicians – and our customers – advanced warning that the chain is approaching the end of its life.”
“Excessively worn chains are lethal, so accurate measurement is vital,” says FB Chain’s Peter Church.
He continues: “Throughout its working life, leaf chain – which is used to control the mast functions on forklift trucks – becomes worn. Because the FB chain wear gauge shows chain wear in 0.25 percent increments from zero to four percent worn, whereas old style chain wear gauges only show if a chain is worn or not, it makes it easy for a service engineer to decide if a chain could become dangerously worn out before the next service is due.”
Richard Ellsworth adds: “The provision of the highest levels of customer service is fundamental to our business and issuing the FB chain wear gauge to all our field service technicians enables us to ensure a level of consistency across the whole service team.”
www.chainweargauge.com
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