Testing – Seafood Firm Expands Straightpoint Load Cell Fleet

Straightpoint (United Kingdom) – Grieg Seafood Shetland Ltd. has added to its Straightpoint (SP) load cell fleet with a 12t capacity Radiolink plus, which is being used to measure the weight of salmon nets at a warehouse on the Shetland Islands, Scotland prior to dispatch.

Grieg already utilises SP load cells and wireless handheld readers in varied lifting applications across its sea farm sites, hatcheries and process plants, at the aforementioned site at the Greenhead base, in addition to Skye (also Scotland), Norway, and Canada. The most recently acquired load cell will principally work beneath the hook of a mounted hydraulic operated crane (MHOC) on a fixed pedestal—a 10t capacity PK 23500.

However, another crane, a PK 42502, is fitted to a Scania R500 Class 1 lorry that also picks up from the facility, while any of the company’s fleet of workboats can dock alongside the net store and crew attach the load cell to deck cranes if they don’t already have one onboard. The vessel Commander, for example, is fitted with a PK 50002 and always carries an SP load cell in its inventory.

Mark Davies, health and safety trainer at Grieg, said: “The net store is a large warehouse on an industrial base, where our nets are checked, repaired, stored and weighed before dispatch. This weight is marked on a label, so our truck driver and boat crew are aware of the weight they will be lifting and handling. We weigh full nets [at Greenhead] but also measure them in bites or sections when changing or removing them at sea.”

He added: “We only use SP load cells, currently employed on 12 sea-sites and approx. 10 onshore bases and storage facilities. We have to ensure our operations conform with LOLER [Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998]. The aquaculture industry is required to conduct lift plans and measure loads in relation to nets, anchors, fish feed, boats, pipes, and gas quads to name just a handful of loads we commonly encounter.”

Beyond a 20-plus fleet of cranes Grieg (UK) operates capstan winches, forklifts, telehandlers, and pallet stackers. A veteran of the industry, and commercial diver, Davies delivers a variety of courses including those on banksmen, life jackets, and fall arrest equipment. He would like to see load cells become ubiquitous in the aquaculture and all marine marketplaces, including with telehandler and forklift operations.

The Radiolink plus is SP’s best-selling product, designed to be rigged with Crosby standard shackles. The wireless tension load cell is capable of weighing and dynamic load monitoring in capacities from 1t to 500t, from stock. It is available in a long range, 2.4GHz version, providing 700m or 2,300 ft. range to the manufacturer’s SW-HHP handheld or wireless software; or in Bluetooth that can be connected to any smart phone running SP’s free HHP app on iOS or Android, at ranges up to 100m or 328ft. Zone 0, 1 and 2 ATEX and IECEx versions are available.

Davies said: “The Radiolink has added safety and efficiency to our operations. The handheld device means we can take accurate, real-time readings at a safe distance and document them for whatever our requirements are at that time. It might be that we need to cross-check with a lift plan the weight of a salmon cage grid buoy anchored to the seabed—vital information given our cranes’ varied capacities depending on the radius at which they have to work.”