A new app displays the load capacities of various shackles and slings, such as wire rope, chain, nylon web and round.
A new app displays the load capacities of various shackles and slings, such as wire rope, chain, nylon web and round.
RigIT LLC, San Francisco, released the app RigIT for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch on June 8, 2011.
“I have my rigging charts on a sticker inside my hardhat,” says Perry Churchill, safety manager with Bragg Crane Co., Long Beach, Calif. “But some of my charts only go up to a certain width, like my wire-rope sticker only goes up to 1¾ inches. The app goes higher, up to two inches.”
The app keeps its functions simple. It gives details on three basic hitches—vertical, choker and basket—for wire, chain, nylon web and round slings. It also gives load capacity based on the diameter of a rope using a color-coded rating system or a nylon web's width and number of plies. Also included are the charts for screw-pin shackles with working load limits based on the diameter of the pin.
Further, the app has a sling angle calculator that computes the actual load of any weght based on five leg angles, from 30° to 90°.
When testing the app, we found the iPad version of the app is still sized for iPhone resolution and looks tiny on the iPad screen, but that does not impair functionality.
This version's chain-sling chart calculates only 100-grade steel, but RigIT President Drew Merschat says the firm will release an update with the 80-grade numbers. He expects to release an Android version of the $2.99 app by August.
