There are two main types of electric hoists widely used in the market: chain electric hoist and wire rope hoist. According to different working conditions, you can choose a suitable electric hoist. This article briefly introduces the difference between chain electric hoist and wire rope hoist for reference.
Size:
When comparing hoists of the same tonnage, the size of the chain electric hoist is generally smaller than that of the wire rope hoist. This is because of their different structures.
The chain electric hoist is chain-driven, and the chain box is separated from the hoist, which overcomes the problem of the wire rope hoist drum being too large. Therefore, the size of the chain electric hoist is generally larger than that of the wire rope hoist. As the lifting height increases, the size difference becomes more significant because the wire rope is wound on the drum, which has a greater impact on the overall size.
Lifting height:
For the wire rope hoist, the wire rope wound on the drum causes elastic deformation. There is excessive pressure on one side of the drum, while there is tension on the corresponding surface. The smaller the drum diameter, the greater the deformation of the wire rope, and the greater the pressure and tension on the corresponding surface. In order to ensure that these forces do not exceed the carrying capacity of the wire rope, the drum diameter of the wire rope hoist must be large so that the deformation of the wire rope is not too large.
The design specification requires that the electric hoist drum diameter is at least 20 times larger than the wire rope diameter. On the other hand, the chain hoist sprockets are connected by hinges, and the force they bear is mainly tensile force. In order to reduce the compressive strength between the chain links and the contact surface between the chain links and the sprockets, the chain hoist sprockets are usually 5-grooved or 6-grooved, and sometimes 4-grooved is used to reduce the load and lifting speed. For these reasons, the pulleys on the drum and hook of the wire rope hoist are much larger than the sprockets of the same specification chain hoist. Therefore, the hook spacing of the chain hoist is smaller than the hook spacing of the same specification wire rope hoist.
That is to say, on the same height track, the chain hoist can achieve a greater lifting height than the wire rope hoist.
Travel distance:
The axis of the wire rope hoist is parallel to the track on which the trolley runs, while the axis of the trolley of the chain hoist can be installed perpendicular to the track.
Therefore, under the same conditions and track length, the travel distance of the chain hoist is greater than that of the wire rope hoist. Even if the axis is parallel to the track, the smaller axial dimension of the electric chain hoist enables a longer travel distance compared to a regular wire rope hoist. When the lifting height of the wire rope hoist is large, the drum length is also long, further affecting the travel distance.
Accuracy:
During the lifting process, the wire rope hoist produces horizontal displacement in the direction of the hoist axis due to the axial winding of the wire rope on the drum.
The greater the lifting height, the more times the wire rope is wound around the drum, resulting in a greater horizontal displacement of the hook. On the other hand, a electric chain hoist ensures that the hook is accurately positioned along the vertical line of the chain regardless of the lifting height.
But many industrial cranes use wire rope hoists. So which one is better depends on your actual situation.
To sum up:
Compared with wire rope hoists, chain electric hoists are much smaller in size. For the same height, the size of chain electric hoists is usually several times or even dozens of times smaller.
Compared with wire rope hoists of the same track height, chain electric hoists can achieve greater lifting heights.
For the same track length, chain electric hoists have a longer running distance than wire rope hoists.
The positioning accuracy of chain electric hoist hooks is more precise than that of wire rope hoists.
Chain electric hoists are easier to install than wire rope hoists.
Compared with wire rope hoists, chain electric hoists have better performance in handling inclined loads.
Electric chain hoists will not have the problem of "loose rope" like wire rope hoists, thereby reducing the failure rate.
Compared with wire rope hoists, the mechanical principle adopted by chain electric hoists prolongs their service life.
Compared with wire rope hoists, chain electric hoists have a longer service life.
