About winches

Winches

The control and drive of the winch can be electric, hydraulic or pneu matic or a combination of the before mentioned options. An important fact to remember is that all know how is available within the company; therefore we can offer our customers a rapid response on inquiries and short delivery times against a highly competitive price level. EMCÉ is active and highly specialised in the range of WLL up to 50 Tons, although we have designed and manufactured winches with working load limits up to 80 Tons to for several applications. Besides the comprehensive range of standard worm gear driven and planetary driven winches, EMCÉ is always able to offer a solution, which is individually tailored to meet the needs of the customer. Nowadays even more than 85% of the total production are winches designed and built to customer specifi cations. EMCÉ has winches in use all over the world on land as well on sea, from high in the mountains to underwater, from the tropics to the Antarctic and from a local private owner to Downing Street 10.

Air motors

The EMCE gear motors are produced and assembled within the Stokvis Holding and are developed in cooperation with a specialist in this field. Our air motors have some very interesting advantages over the conventional piston type of air motors, i.e.

• life time;
• maintenance cost reduction;
• higher power output ratings;

All off the above mentioned advantages are realized by the fact that this motor has only 3 moving but no contacting parts, so hardly any wear and tear, thus no spare parts consumption and need for frequent overhauls. This motor has only a total of about 70 parts, where a piston motor has more than 160 parts, it is evident that the lesser parts the lesser the operational costs. In principle, the gear motor is completely maintenance-free if the air quality requirements that apply to all air-operated motors are within the specifications.

EMCÉ winches are custom built made products

Many constructions are possible, and there are as many norms and selection criteria for choosing a winch. In this foreword we discuss several of these to help you in your selection.

W.L.L. (Working Load Limit)

The W.L.L. is usually given in the fi rst layer, however it decreases for each higher cable layer. The line pull is expressed in kg or daN. Thus it is most important to determine the working length of the cable on the drum, to which should be added 3 safety windings which always remains on the drum.

Choice of cable

For lifting purposes a fi ve-fold safety factor is normally applied to the cable breaking strength. Cables for pulling winches are normally chosen with a three-fold safety factor, though in some cases other safety factors may be required.

Speed

The required speed is vary much depending on the purpose of the winch. Sometimes it may be useful to equip it with a variable speed. With pneumatic- or hydraulic winches this is achieved using a proportional control valve, however for electric winches you need a frequency inverter in the control panel for a full variable drive. Nowadays the electric frequency inverter is a cost-effective solution as it also offers some other standard technical features.

Power source

Should your power source be other than the one stated in this catalogue, please consult EMCE. Our engineering department can recalculate the winch based upon your available power supply.

Winch environment

The winches can be used under a lot of different harsh conditions. Although we always like to know these conditions so we can judge if the standard will be suitable for the job or not. With regard to the temperature the following range is applicable.

• Temperature range, standard: -10°C / + 40°C
• Temperature range, special: -40°C / + 50°C

Brakes

Every lifting winch must have a fail-safe braking system. The standard electric- and pneumatic EMCÉ worm gear winches are self-braking without using a separate brake in the driveline. For some general lifting purposes this suffices, however for accurate positioning of a load and safe lifting a brake motor may be advised. The other EMCÉ winches are normally supplied with a fail-safe brake motor, but can, if required, be built without a brake.

Controls

Electric: alongside the normal options of pushbuttons, direct reversing switches or remote controls (pendant or radio controlled), there are several options which may be useful or even necessary. These are; limit switches (to stop the winch when the drum is full or empty), electronic line pull limiter, variable speed, slack rope detection, constant tensioning, Eexd executions, etc.

Hydraulic and pneumatic: Hydraulic and pneumatic winches may be directly controlled, for example by fl ow and/or pressure regulators, or by combination of electric control boxes with electric actuated valves. Full packages with hydraulic power packs also can be supplied together with the hydraulic winches either supplied onto the winch-frame or standalone.

Clutches

In general we use two types. Claw types: these can’t be operated under load, so that the driveline must fi rst be freed of the load, (for example using a band brake on the winch drum) before the clutch may be operated. Claw clutches are always manually operated, they are extremely robust, dependable and relatively inexpensive. Friction clutches: these can be operated under load and can compensate for differences in turning speeds between the drum and the driveline. Friction clutches can be operated manually as well as remotely by hydraulic or pneumatic power sources. They are normally more expensive and more complex than claw clutches. A notable exception to this rule is the friction clutch built onto the compact series MC 303 to MC 313. Note that for most lifting purposes, the use of a clutch in the driveline is not permitted!

Band brakes

Band brakes can be provide manually or failsafe automatically by means of a hydraulic or pneumatic cylinder. Band brakes are used for applications where a second brake, a drum brake is required. By instance for man riding applications where the regulations ask for a second brake if the fi rst brake is malfunctioning or for applications where the static load is a multiple of the dynamic Working Load Limit. An application of the second could be a wire rope anchor winch.

Electric requirements

Normally we work with protection class IP 54 (splash water tight, dust proof), both for the motors and the control boxes. Pendant remote controls are IP 65 protected. Cast iron motors can also be fi tted in IP 56 TENV (totally enclosed non-ventilated) for deck equipment in marine use. For explosion proof and spark free zones, we can equip the winches with the correct explosion proof or spark free motors and control boxes.

Cable guides

For normal cable (6x36) the maximum advisable fleet angle is 2º for smooth drums and 3º for helical grooved drums. The following aid to determine the distance between the drum and sheave can be used for smooth drums; 20 x drum length. Or for grooved drums; 15 x drum length. For a larger fl eet angle a cable spooling a pressure roller is may be necessary. The grooving of a drum and a constant load both help a cable spool correctly on the winch drum.For pulling winches, when the cable may become slack, a pressure roll is advisable, so that the cable stays neatly spooled on the drum.

Note

Depending on local regulations, options and requirements may be different