capstan hoist

[jdh12]

We just recently had an accident with a capstan. We have them located on our boom. A crew was feeding the mule tape in pipe with capstan when the capstan come off the boom from 30 ft. high and landed on one of the crew members. He banged up bad but expected to make a full recovery. I would like to ask if anyone else has had this problem or heard of it? If so do you know what caused. thanks a fellow lineman.

[TRAMPLINEMAN]

Explain in more detail why you would mount a capstan to your boom. I'm not following what you guys were doing.

[Bigheadnc]

???

:)

i'm a little confused too.

[tramp67]

I'm guessing you are referring to a digger with a tip-mounted winch that has a shaft sticking out for attaching a capstan or butterfly. When you attach the capstan or butterfly, you need to be certain the attachment is fully inserted onto the shaft, and turn it until the locking pins extend through the holes in the attachment. Maybe it wasn't fully seated, or the locking pins need lubrication. If the pins haven't extended, the capstan will rotate until it is no longer lined up with the locking pins, and may slowly "walk" off the shaft.

[jdh12]

the boom on the digger derrick has an attachment for a capstan or a butterfly. it was put on properly, we found in others that the spring that locks them in place was failing. we are waiting to hear from altec. we think the welds on the spring were broke in the one that fell off.

[jdh12]

Explain in more detail why you would mount a capstan to your boom. I'm not following what you guys were doing.
for pulling in underground cables.

[Livewire]

jdh12 you wouldn't happen to work for the city of Tallahasse, FL would you?

[NoName]

They can walk off of the shaft if the spring inside that keeps pressure on it is weak. It will allow them to wobble off of their locking pins, then completely off of the shaft. I've seen that a few times. Especially if the rope is being wound up at an angle.

I've also heard of men getting caught up in the rope being wound on a capstan because they got to close and their clothing got wrapped up thus dragging them into it.

Stay away from them when they are in use. They can be very dangerous!

[Stinger]

NoName, funny you should mention that type of accident. We had it happen to one of the hands about a month ago. Lucklly he was able to stop the castpin before he really got wound up in it. He recieved minor brusing.

[markwho]

We had a hydraulic operated unit mounted on our wire trailer to take up the spyder rope when pulling in the bull line. We had used it quite a bit without any problems until a spyder reel came off under tension one day. It seems that the shaft with the two pins for the adapter of the spyder reel was held in place by a bolt on the center of the shaft. The unit could run in either direction. It seems the bolt loosened allowing the whole unit to disconnect from the pump. I believe they changed the tread to left hand so it would not loosen. One employee was struck and knocked down by the reel but luckily was only banged up and after a trip by ambulance to the e.r. was back to work the next day.

Mark