Over the 74 years that Bushman Equipment has been custom designing and manufacturing below-the-hook lifting equipment and floor-based material handling solutions, our upenders have been used to provide an easy and efficient way to upend metal coils, molds, dies and all sorts of other heavy & bulky loads.

Recently, a Midwest Steel Mill had us design and manufacture a mechanical upender which will be used to upend roll chocks for regular maintenance.

The 54” x 54” platform was engineered to feature custom beveled guides to help retain the load.

The equipment itself weighs 5,500 lbs. and is equipped with a capacity of 20,000 lbs.

More information on Bushman Equipment’s entire product line-up of mechanical upenders can be found here.

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Bushman’s customer provided a number of its casting systems that included Bushman’s semi-automated jib cranes, or “manipulators”, to lift and set the distribution troughs over the casting pits where 30-foot long aluminum billets and ingots are formed.

Pete Kerrick, president of Bushman, stated that the challenge for his engineers was not only the physical size and capacity of the jib cranes but also the Factory Acceptance Test which was mandated. The contract required partially erecting the manipulators in Bushman’s shop and demonstrating all motions and devices—including lifting about 50% load and swinging it through a 45° arc.

Bushman designed the hoist specifically for this jib crane, with some of the specifications being:

• Capacity: 12 metric tons (26,400 lbs.)
• Span: 21’ 5”
• Height Under Boom: 19’ 2”
• Pillar Diameter: 36”
• Total Machine Weight: 40,000 lbs.

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Bushman Equipment, Inc, a manufacturer of custom-engineered material handling solutions, recently delivered a mechanical upender specially equipped with manually adjustable, hand crank V-blocks to a manufacturer that serves the nuclear power industry. The primary use for the floor-based unit is to upend to 90 degrees, large cylindrical weldments weighing up to 80,000 pounds.

Bushman engineers designed the upender platforms to accommodate as many as six different-shaped pieces. The engineering challenge was to provide easily adjustable V-blocks that could accommodate different diameters and lengths of product for upending.

The customer had previously used rigging, cranes, and different material handling procedures requiring nearly one full day to upend a work piece. Now, with the Bushman® upender, the same task will be performed safely and efficiently in 15 minutes.

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The contract awarded to Bushman called for the design and build of an 80 metric ton (176,370 lb) capacity upender. Bushman application engineer and project manager Jeff Henning said, “We have built bigger capacity units before, but this one is by far the largest physical size and heaviest unit Bushman has ever built—standing over 28 ft tall and weighing 154,000 lbs.”

The upender is unique in that it must support a 110,000 lb transformer coil that rests on a cantilevered hanger that is bolted to the loading platform. “This creates a completely different force distribution from a normal upender and that really drove up the weight”, said project engineer Marty Schoenecker.

All Bushman employees in front of the Mitsubishi upender.

After Mitsubishi personnel visited Bushman to conduct and sign off on a successful Factory Acceptance Test, the upender was dismantled and a caravan of four flatbed semis delivered it to the plant site in Memphis. A Bushman subcontractor was on hand to reassemble the machine.

The upender is over 28 ft tall when fully upright.

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