Category Archives: Press Releases
Platinum wedding in the harbor
For 70 years Dolezych has been at home at Dortmund port
More than 20 kilometers of track were laid, the cost to the state was 6.43 million Reichsmarks and the German Emperor Wilhelm II was present at the inauguration ceremony on August 11, 1899: The port has always been a project with supraregional appeal.
A good 35 years after the inauguration of the port, Franz Dolezych founds the nucleus of our present Dolezych GmbH & Co. KG, the “Westdeutsche Drahtseilverkaufsgesellschaft mbH” at Braunschweiger Straße 127 in Dortmund Asseln. The company grows in the following to 12 employees and a turnover of over 350,000 Reichsmark. With the further development, despite the difficult post-war years it becomes too cramped at the original company headquarters.
Franz Dolezych believes in the economic power of the port and relocated his headquarters in 1951 to today’s to what is now Hartmannstrasse (then still Sunderweg). The perfect location to be able to ship goods, whether by water or by land, to destinations all over the world.
Dream team in Dortmund
Both the port and Dolezych continue to grow. Today, the original “water station of the coal and steel industry” is Europe’s largest canal port, an urban logistics center and industrial area. Dolezych provides secure jobs for around 230 employees in Dortmund. Our headquarter is continuously modernized and expanded.
In short, Dortmunder Hafen AG and Dolezych are a dream team. Managing Director Karl-Heinz Keisewitt is also active in the Dortmunder Hafenanlieger e.V. association, since 2016 as chairman. He sees the perfect location as one of the secrets of success: “The port of Dortmund is the largest contiguous commercial area on Dortmund’s surface. We like being here because the port is the perfect logistical hub in the heart of Europe. From here we can reach all relevant European destinations in 24 to 48 hours at the most.”
On the occasion of the official congratulations of the anniversary, Uwe Büscher, member of the Executive Board of Dortmunder Hafen AG, confirmed the close connection: “The bond that connects the port of Dortmund and Dolezych is equivalent to a tear-proof tiedown strap from your company. We look forward to the next decades of prosperous cooperation!”
Hardly anyone does that!
Visit to the BlackSeries production facility
To lift large weights, you need huge lifting equipment? Wrong! You can also save space and at the same time lift extremely powerfully with various manual hoists, for example with lever chain hoists or block and tackle hoists. Our products from the BlackSeries range for “hand-operated cranes” (also called manual hoists) are manufactured according to DIN EN 13157 and your individual specifications. According to your requirements we can, for example, adjust the stroke length. For pulley blocks (from 500 kg and lever hoists from 750 kg), the slipping clutch is set between 140 and 180% of the rated capacity. We then test the hoists with at least 25% overload and issue a corresponding 3.1 acceptance test certificate. We are proud to say that hardly any other manufacturer in Germany does this!
So much for product quality. But who at Dolezych manufactures the products? Who are the people behind the product?
Always in the team
In this case, it’s Ahmet Avcioglu and Martin Labisch. The two have been working in BlackSeries production since 2017 and are perfectly matched. Mainly assembling Martin Labisch, a trained specialist in warehouse logistics, and Ahmet Avcioglu, a trained lathe operator, assemble the BlackSeries manual hoists. In addition, the team repairs everything related to the hand hoists, of course also third-party products. Many spare parts for the most popular brands are immediately available from stock and can be installed at short notice.
Family and football
The common ground does not end at work. Both have sons almost the same age, and both love soccer. As a “Dortmund boy,” Martin is naturally a BVB fan; Ahmet keeps his fingers crossed for his hometown club Beşiktaş Istanbul. But he is also interested in the Bundesliga and BVB.
Dream team with responsibility
Both do their responsible work inconspicuously in the background. It’s impressive how they work together to prepare the sometimes enormously large lifting equipment for the customer. In doing so, they always have the user’s safety in mind – the checks are taken very seriously and are carried out according to the dual control principle. Martin Labisch and Ahmet Avcioglu are noticeably proud of their work. It fascinates them every day anew that such weighty loads can be lifted with so little effort. Making heavy things look light – that works best as a team!
For those who want to know exactly
- With the BlackSeries lever hoists you can lift loads between 250 kg and 9 t.
- The BlackSeries block and tackle is available for loads between 500 kg and 15 t (up to 50 t on request).
- You determine and order the hoist length according to your needs – this is one of the advantages of our assembly service for you in Dortmund.
- According to DGUV regulation 54, lever and pulley blocks must be subjected to a visual and functional test at least once a year. The Dolezych testing service will be happy to test at your site or also in our own testing laboratory.
DoLast lifts!
300 Tons on a crossbeam
A huge coke-processing machine – a so-called filling car – is to be shipped as a whole via Brussels to Marseille. The task for us in Dortmund: to construct a lifting beam that can lift the filling car, which is approximately the size of a small house and weighs about 300 tons.
Our designers were happy to accept this challenge. The crossbeam is just as impressive in size as the machine being lifted. We were on site for the test lift: Within one morning, the spreader beam was attached, the gigantic load was lifted and it performed its service: Smoothly and reliably – test lift successful! We accompanied the exciting scene photographically:
Perfect connection between textile DoNova® chain and DoRa tensioner
For proper load securing you must secure with ratchet load tensioners and lashing chains, among other things. The faster and easier this can be done, the better for employees and nerves.
As is so often the case, the devil is in the details. This detail to the popular textile lashing chain DoNova® and the innovative ratchet load tensioner DoRa was developed by our engineers in Dortmund: The specially adapted DoRa hook now securely connects the DoRa telescopic tensioner to the DoNova® lashing chain. This allows you to enjoy all the advantages of the super-light textile chain and the DoRa tensioner in its minimal design with maximum tensioning travel at the same time – efficient and flexible working is then guaranteed!
Who wants to know exactly
Available is the combination of DoRa tensioner and DoNova® chain
- for 25/8, DoNova® lashing chains with LC 10,000 daN (part no. 0385 0162)
- for 30/8s with LC 16,000 daN
- for 30/10s with LC 20,000 daN
Is that safe? – From practice to the test laboratory
We have tested makeshift applications of lashing hook connections for their safety
If you want to bundle loads safely one-piece belts are usually used. However, if the length of the available one-piece tiedown straps is not sufficient for this purpose or if none are available at all two-piece tiedown straps are often used. For bundling their profile hooks are then hooked into each other. Tiedown straps extended or connected in this way are not uncommon in European road traffic. But does this still conform to standards?
Standards and directives do not clearly define whether and which hook connections are permissible. They merely stipulate that hooks may be loaded with tensile stress but not with bending stress. At first glance this is probably not guaranteed for many of the improvised hook connections. So far, however, there are no published tests on the subject. So are such connections safe or not? Our technical team was curious and investigated this question together with Konrad Rainer from the Austrian expert office Cargo Safetytec in the Dolezych Germany test laboratory. The answers that emerged are impressive
Best possible test conditions
The test specimens were profile hooks (often referred to as pointed hooks), which are commonly used as connections of tiedown straps to lashing points or on outer frame hole profiles on the vehicle. On our certified testing machines of accuracy class 1, we tested test arrangements according to Figures 1 – 4.
For the tests we selected exclusively new unused and welded quality hooks of the same type from Dolezych. “We deliberately refrained from combining different hook types from different manufacturers because otherwise we would have had to consider additional influences that we wanted to exclude in our tests” explains Uwe Schöbel, Head of the Technology Department.
Tests expose weak connections
The result of the tests is clear: Most of the tested lashing hook connection methods are not safe! “The majority of the hook combinations did not even survive the load test prescribed in the DIN EN 12195-2 standard. This states that a lashing hook must withstand a load of more than 25% of its WLL without deformation or malfunction” says our test engineer Winfried Röhn. “In the subsequent tensile test, which is also required by the standard almost all the hook connections also failed. In this case the hooks should actually be able to be loaded with twice their WLL and survive this without breaking.” In some Tests the hooks broke (Figs. 2 and 4). Other hook connections such as the one in Fig. 1, were already unacceptably bent up after the test loads. The only combination that survived all tests was the method of hooks symmetrically hooked into each other in the hook head (Fig. 3).
Impressive conclusion
Our tests thus show impressively: as soon as hooks are improperly connected and loaded for bending in the process they are no longer safe. The marked WLL is no longer achieved. This can have devastating consequences. Such improvised hook connections can fail in practical use and must therefore never be used! Only the variant symmetrically hooked into each other in the hook head (Fig.3) achieved the required strength in our tests. “If the lashing hooks are identical types that meet all normative requirements, this connection is perfectly possible in practical use,” Uwe Schöbel sums up. Therefore, our urgent advice: Avoid risky improvisation! It is best to ensure the correct load securing in each case by using a suitable selection of lashing equipment. This includes, for example, strapping lashings in sufficient lengths or two-part systems with special lashing hooks.
The DoNova® PowerLash textile chain could also help. It is the flexible “all-rounder” (more information on its many possible applications can be found for example at www.donova.info).
Do you still have questions? Please contact us.
A lashing strap with a difference
Typically lashing straps are used to tie down and secure cargo. But sometimes unconventional ways also lead to a goal.
Creativity in maintenance
One of our customers for example got creative to find a simple and effective securing measure for the maintenance of forklift trucks. In the process their protective hoods have to be held up. In the past this led to problems. In the lead role in this solution: a lashing strap. Previously the protective hood had only been “supported” with wooden beams – a very error-prone design as the beams tipped away even when touched lightly and could no longer hold the hood in place. The result was bruising and other injuries to the employees’ hands.
The magic word is “flexible“
The customer’s occupational safety department therefore had to quickly develop a flexible and robust solution. The safety officers took 2,000 daN lashing straps attached their S-hooks to the protective hood passed the 35 mm webbing once over the roof of the vehicle – and perfect strapping was ready just like for load securing. Because the ratchet allows the strap length to be flexibly adjusted this solution can also be used with forklift protective hoods of different sizes. A lashing strap with a difference but used very cleverly!
#Spotted
Eight meters of lashing chain simply thrown loosely over the left shoulder at the same time six meters casually in the right hand – and this by our petite colleague Halina Kampa from the test room.
Of course this only works with our textile lashing chain DoNova® PowerLash whose individual chain links in the version with 25 mm width and 8 layers of webbing only weigh about 60 grams. At the same time it is extremely robust and secures loads with an LC of 10,000 daN – which is comparable to a heavy 13 mm steel chain of grade 8. Even stronger DoNova® systems even reach an LC of 20,000 daN – just like 16 mm steel chains of grade 10.
We were allowed to equip ten truck rear doors of a Dolezych Germany customer with this great picture and are very proud that these trailers with our motif are now on the roads of Europe. Maybe you will discover one of these vehicles one day!
Textile Chain Revolution – Doleco links the present to the future
Published in Modern Wire Rope News & Sling Technology, February 2021.
Read the whole article here.
Exclusive cooperation in the name of safety
BPW iGurt with Dolezych lashing strap available now
How much they have to tighten their lashing straps in order to secure the load sufficiently is often estimated by many users on the basis of their feeling, sense of proportion and, in some cases, years of experience. However, this approach is often inadequate. Too little pretensioning force in the lashing equipment (slipping load) or a too tight lashing can often result in costly and dangerous damage to the goods being transported or the load itself.
In order to give the user more security in this respect, Dolezych has for many years offered products that can indicate the pretensioning force achieved in each case, e.g. mobile pretensioning force measuring devices from the Dolezych “DoMess” product range.
Intelligent cargo restraint
For the same reasons, BPW Bergische Achsen KG has developed the iGurt, which has already won the Golden German Innovation Award in the category “Excellence in Business to Business – Automotive Technologies” of the German Design Council in May 2019. The iGurt is an intelligent pretensioning force indicator that continuously monitors the pretensioning force on the lashing strap via app.
Common configuration
To ensure that the iGurt indicator functions optimally, it is matched to a special Dolezych lashing strap. The final combination of iGurt and lashing strap was thus created through cooperation between the two German quality manufacturers BPW and Dolezych Germany. “Together, the entire system was developed and configured. The iGurt is now available exclusively with Dolezych lashing straps,” reports Uwe Schöbel, head of the Dolezych Germany technical department.
Cargo restraint continuously in view
The functionality of the handy and robust pretensioning force indicator is delightfully simple. It is easily and quickly attached to the lashing strap by means of a clip mechanism. Already during tensioning, the iGurt shows in 50 daN increments the indication value of the measured pretensioning forces. If the pretensioning force falls below its previously set minimum value, e.g. while driving, the user is minimum value, the user – this can be the driver, but also a forwarder – is informed of this via a message in his smartphone app (Android) about this. The user can correct the cargo restraint on the lashing strap in question. “So he doesn’t have to check each lashing strap individually to find out where the loss occurred. This saves time and he can quickly continue the journey safely,” explains Sales Manager Walter Eckstein one of the main benefits of the safety system.
Transparency, less damage, lower costs
The advantages are obvious: more transparency and reduced downtimes, a verifiable loading control as well as fewer accidents and damage due to inadequately secured or cargo that has been tied down too tightly. This also results in less effort for claims processing in the company. “So the iGurt will play its contribute to the protection of people and loads in road traffic. It will also help to save considerable costs,” says Walter Eckstein. The product innovation, which is eligible for funding under the “De-minimis program” of the German government, is available now exclusively in the BPW store telematics24.de and in the Dolezych Germany online store (shipping to Germany and Austria).