Which device lifts what a person should not?
Manipulator, balancer, lifting aid, lifting column: the market gives the same thing different names and different things the same name. This page sorts the types and leads to every explanation.
- Technical terms
- 21
- Guides
- 10
- Calculators
- 1
What all devices in this group share is that a person guides the load and the device carries it. They differ in how the load is suspended – on a rope, a chain or a rigid arm – and in whether the device merely balances the weight or also takes up moments when the load is gripped off-centre, rotated or tilted.
Selection follows from that: a rope balancer is fast and sensitive but cannot hold an off-centre load. A rigid manipulator can, and needs more space in return. Rail system and jib crane define the working area; the drive – pneumatic or electric – defines how it is operated.
The calculator below returns lifting capacity and load moment from load, gripper weight and reach – the two figures every selection starts with.
What we do in this field
Lifting Technology
Lifting equipment, manipulators and balancers for industry, medical technology and logistics.
View serviceSizing & Custom Solutions
Load, reach, cycle time – plus grippers for anything without a catalogue entry.
View serviceWorkstation Analysis
We look at the workstation before we talk about equipment.
View serviceThe questions, answered in full
Manipulator or balancer?
Both hold the load. Only one guides it.
Read the articleSizing a manipulator
It is not the payload that decides, it is the moment.
Read the articleManipulator or robot?
The robot wins on repetition. People win on variants.
Read the articleLifting aids at the assembly station
The question is never “which unit?”. It is “which movement?”.
Read the articlePlanning a rail system
One unit at eight stations beats eight units.
Read the articleRail system or jib crane
The circle is cheaper. The area is usually right.
Read the articleOverhead crane or dedicated device
The crane can take the load. The question is whether it can do the task.
Read the articlePneumatic or electric drive
Compressed air costs more to run and is still usually right.
Read the articleRetrofitting existing plants
On paper everything fits. On the floor, centimetres count.
Read the articleMaking a good enquiry
Capacity alone describes no task.
Read the articleThe equipment
Articulated Arm Hoist
The jointed arm for millimetre-precise handling.
View device Lifting equipment · BalancersSkyline Rope Balancer
Weightless handling – floating instead of lifting.
View device Lifting equipment · Lifting axesI-GO Lifting Axis
Compact power for vertical lifting.
View device Lifting equipment · ManipulatorsElbow Articulated Arm
The jointed boom with a wide radius.
View device Lifting equipment · ManipulatorsI-GO Articulated Boom
Articulated arm plus integrated lifting axis.
View device Lifting equipment · BalancersArticulated Rope Unit
Articulated reach meets weightless floating.
View device Lifting equipment · Crane systemsSlewing Crane Rope Unit
Wide reach by slewing around the column.
View device Lifting equipment · MobileElbow Mobile
The articulated arm that comes to the load.
View device Lifting equipment · MobileI-GO Mobile
Mobile lifting axis for flexible lifting.
View device Lifting equipment · Assembly aidsTorque Arm
Takes the reaction torque – your hands stay free.
View device Lifting equipment · Conveyor systemsRail System
The whole area covered – in X and Y.
View deviceEvery term, explained individually
21 Terms- Articulated arm
- A two-section arm system with a joint in the middle. It folds and extends and thereby reaches, from one fixed position, points tha...
- Balancer
- Device that compensates the weight of a load through a rope or chain so that it stands almost weightless in the air. It holds the...
- Chain hoist
- A hoist that lifts the load on a round steel chain. The chain runs over a chain wheel and is stored in a chain box, which makes th...
- Equipment finder
- Our tool for the first step: describe the handling task in your own words and you receive a shortlist of suitable units with reaso...
- Handling systems
- Term for matched assemblies of supporting, lifting and gripping units that together solve a handling task. Unlike “device”, it str...
- Handling technology
- Umbrella term for all technical means by which loads are picked up, moved, positioned and set down within a workstation or plant....
- Hoisting mechanism
- The assembly generating the lifting movement – motor, gearbox, brake and load-bearing medium. In crane engineering the hoist is cl...
- Lifting aid
- Collective term for all equipment that relieves people when lifting and guiding loads – balancers, manipulators, lifting axes and...
- Lifting axis
- A vertically working guided axis that raises and lowers the load rigidly. It is slim, torsionally stiff and particularly suited to...
- Lifting equipment
- A legally defined term for equipment used to raise loads. Lifting equipment is work equipment under German industrial safety regul...
- Lifting technology
- The field concerned with raising and lowering loads – from the chain hoist through the balancer to the crane. In practice the term...
- Manipulator
- Hand-guided device with rigid kinematics that carries the load while the operator only guides it. Unlike a balancer, the rigid arm...
- Pillar jib crane
- A floor-anchored pillar with a slewing jib serving a circular working area. The design is simple, inexpensive and quickly erected...
- Pneumatic drive
- A drive generating lifting and gripping movements from compressed air. It is the norm in handling technology: compliant rather tha...
- Positioning technology
- Technology that does not merely move a load but brings it into a precisely defined position and holds it there. In hand-guided han...
- Rail system
- A girder structure on which a handling device travels, allowing it to reach every point of a line or area. Designs include the sin...
- Telescopic lift axis
- A lift axis of nested profiles achieving a long stroke with low headroom. It is the answer to low ceilings: where a chain hoist an...
- Torque arm
- An arm that absorbs the reaction forces of a nutrunner or drill instead of passing them into the operator’s wrist. It is the answe...
- Trolley
- The running gear that guides a hoist along a rail or beam. On hand-operated systems its smoothness decides whether an installation...
- Wall-mounted jib crane
- A slewing jib fixed to a load-bearing wall or column, so it occupies no floor space. It serves a half circle rather than a full on...
- Wire rope hoist
- A hoist that winds a wire rope onto a drum. Compared with a chain hoist it has lower headroom, runs quieter and can be controlled...
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