Examples of everyday nautical engineering that we’ve adapted for the industrial sector include powerful, efficient and rugged winches, suitable for a variety of applications including emergency recovery, manual load lifting, tripod applications and certified man-riding. The range of power ratios help to reduce fatigue and risk of injury when managing heavy loads.

By using lightweight modern materials, our products are more portable. Using fibre rope instead of traditional heavy wire makes our products lighter. Having unlimited lengths of rope makes heights or drops more accessible. At this year’s Maintec exhibition we launched the LokHead winch – weighing just over 4kg, this lightweight, portable, self-tailing, man-riding winch, provides the security and safety of a captive head and offers complete security against accidental free fall.

Using Harken’s modern technology and approach, customers have reduced the time taken to deliver contracts, saving significant amounts of money and exceeding client expectations, whilst also giving customers the competitive edge when tendering for contracts. 

Case studies 

Specialising in high end load handling apparatus including winches, pulleys and linear motion track systems, we work with customers from a range of industrial sectors such as working at height, access and emergency rescue scenarios, construction and telecommunications. 

Originally designed for the maintenance of luxury superyachts, the Access Rail System is suitable as an anchorage for external maintenance. It provides freedom of movement at height giving the operator the ability to lock into one position as they work. By combining the access rail and one of our radial electric winches we designed a lifting system for stainless steel tank equipment to make it easier for workers on large stainless storage tanks to move equipment around the top of the tank. The tanks were built from the top down on hydraulic jacks, and used cranes and MEWP’s (Mobile Elevation Work Platforms) to move equipment at great cost to the build project.

Using radial electric winches allowed workers to easily hoist and lower an equipment cage using rope. The rope led through three 57mm ESP pulleys installed at the top of the tank and down to the winch for operation. The Access Rail System allows workers to move the cage around the tank without using a crane or MEWPs. As well as ensuring the safety of the workers this approach saved the company both considerable time and money. 

Harken Industrial’s PowerSeat provides operators working at height with the ability to ascend quickly, stay in position longer and work in comfort. With complex, ever evolving architectural designs and construction, the PowerSeat is being increasingly used in maintenance applications.

A commercial cleaning services and maintenance company used the PowerSeat to clean and maintain a multi-storey building with limited façade access in Canada Water, London. On top of the building, a 3m high glass wall surrounding the rooftop terrace made the façade inaccessible. The contractors needed full access to all four façades, however the building design meant standard practices for access were not suitable.

Concern was raised for the technicians who would be subjected to excess strain, due to the regularity with which they would need to climb the façades. As a result, Harken Industrial’s PowerSeat was commissioned to provide an efficient, cost effective alternative for working at height, in comfort. With an ascent speed up to 15m/min, the PowerSeat eliminated the risk of strain on the technicians and significantly reduced operating times, maximising the amount of work that could be completed per day and enabling the work to be carried out in a safer, more efficient manner.