There are a number of important factors to consider when using chain to lift a given obstacle. Shiny, gold, Grade 70 Transport chain is intended for load binding only. This chain is used to hold heavy items down to a flatbed truck and the gold-chromate finish as well as the carbon-steel construction makes this chain easy to spot and more difficult to break. 

Picture this: You’re connecting a sling to a swivel hoist ring using a screw pin shackle.  You get the sling nestled nice and comfy in the bow of the shackle and put the ears around the bail of the hoist ring.  You insert the shackle pin through the ears of the shackle (being careful to catch the bail on the way through) and you twist it until it’s tight against the side of the shackle.  You’re about to fly the load but wait, you forgot something! A supervisor told you that the pin is supposed to be backed off 1/4th of a turn! How could you have forgotten?!

If you’ve ever been in this situation before, we have some news for you.  The American Society of Mechanical Engineers states quite plainly in its B30.26 standard for Rigging Hardware “screw pin threads shall be fully engaged and tight, and the shoulder should be in contact with the shackle body” prior to any lift.

With rigging especially, there seems to be a lot of industry practices that came about without consulting the manufacturer and this is one of the many examples we cover in our Crosby Rigging Seminars.  One of our trainers goals during the training is to point out where there are no grey areas; if the manufacturer of a product has written procedures for its use and we don’t follow them then who is being negligent?  Proper rigging techniques should always be used to avoid accidents and injuries.

If you’re now wondering if there are any other rigging situations or practices that might not be up to par, please don’t hesitate to contact our professional Safety Trainers. 

We offer a variety of Safety Training courses for the mining and construction industries.  We also offer Emergency Responder courses.

Here is a full list of our Safety Courses:

• Crosby Rigging Training
• Fall Arrest Safety Training
• Tugger Safety Training
• Wirelock Socketing Training
• Suspended Access Equipment Training
• First Aid / CPR Training
• Emergency Medical Responder Training
• Medical Frist Responder Training
• Intermediate Level First Aid Training
• Firefighter Advanced First Aid

Contact Northern Strands to book your next Safety Course at 306-242-7073 by email training@northernstrands.com or visit or webpage to learn more http://www.northernstrands.com/training.aspx 

Northern Strands is proudly Saskatoon, Saskatchewan owned and operated.

On June 1st Northern Strands hosted the Crosby Shrimp Boil and Rigging Training event.  Crosby picks only 4 companies a year in North America to host this event.  It took months of careful planning and teamwork to make the event a success.  

We started at the Travelodge for Rigging Training.  We had excellent attendance for the Crosby Rigging Course.  Over 80 people attend training!  Crosby Group gave an excellent course on rigging.  The Crosby trainer covered everything from rigging inspection to how the working load limit can vary between different types of rigging hardware.

Did you know that Northern Strands offers a variety of safety training courses? i.e. Fall Arrest Training, Rigging Training, Winch Training, First Aid Training, Suspended Access Training, Wirelock Socketing Training, Emergency Medical Responder Training, Medical First Responder Training, Intermediate First Aid Training and more.

After training, we all headed over to Northern Strands for the second half of our event.  The Crosby Shrimp Boil!  This is the part everyone was waiting for.  The meal consisted of sausage, peppers, corn, mushrooms, baby potatoes and of course shrimp.  See the attached PDF for the full recipe.

Shrimp boil dinner.pdf (138.67 kb)

At the Shrimp Boil we provided demonstrations on Northern Strands new Mobile Test Center.   We pulled rigging to destruction and showed how damaged rigging will readily break below the working load limit.  Our new Mobile Test Center was engineered and fabricated for Northern Strands by our sister company Fortis Mining Engineering & Manufacturing.  

Northern Strands is now offering free, "Is Your Rigging Safe Demonstration's" to qualified customers.  We will bring our Mobile Test Center on site for your demonstration.  See the attached brochure for detail on how to book your rigging safety demonstration.

Is Your Rigging Safe Demonstration Brochure.pdf (1.25 mb)

In addition to the pull to destruction demonstrations, we offered tours of our Northern Strands rigging warehouse facilities.  We had employees giving demonstrations on how we fabricate 1" wire rope slings in our sling bay.

Northern Strands would like to thank all of our clients that attended the Northern strands Shrimp Boil and Training Event.  We hope you all enjoyed the training, dinner, pull testing demonstrations and tours of our rigging warehouse.  

Here are a few more great pictures from the Northern Strands Crosby Shrimp Boil!

This year Crosby Group has selected Northern Strands to host its famous Crosby Shrimp Boil and Rigging Training Seminar!  For those unfamiliar with this event, Crosby Group provides a free rigging course followed by a shrimp boil where you eat jumbo prawns to your hearts content.  Plus Northern Strands will be providing pull testing demonstrations on our mobile test bed and offering tours of our rigging warehouse facilities.  Crosby selects only one Canadian Crosby rigging distributor annually to host this exclusive event.  With Northern Strands being one of the top rigging companies in Saskatchewan, it was high time the Crosby Shrimp Boil made it's way back to Saskatchewan.  In fact, this isn't the first time Northern Strands has hosted the Crosby Shrimp Boil.   In years past, our Regina location hosted the event to great success.

The Northern Strands Shrimp Boil and Rigging Training event will take place Wednesday June 1st.  If you are a company that uses rigging and would like your employees to receive free rigging training followed by a free shrimp boil, contact us today to see if we still have spots available.  See the attached invitation for details...We have extended the RSVP date to May 20th.  Email marketing@northernstrands.com if you are interested in attending.

Northern Strands Crosby Shrimp Boil Invite.pdf (827.73 kb)

Did you know that Northern Strands is the largest supplier of supplier of rigging and wire rope in Saskatchewan?  We supply many of the local farmers, construction companies and potash mines in Saskatchewan with the following rigging supplies:

• Crosby shackles
• web slings
• round slings
• chain slings
• wire rope slings with special fitting (threaded studs, spelter sockets, swage sockets)
• turnbuckles
• wirelock
• spreader beams
• chain hoists
• lever hoists
• aircraft cable
• plate clamps
• beam clamps
• tow straps
• tow rope
• snatch blocks
• transport chain
• fall protection gear
• lifting hooks
• trifors
• grade 100 chain
• lifting lugs
• eyebolts & eye nuts
• wire rope lubricant
• grade 100 chain
• grade 30 and 43 Chain

And of course all Crosby Rigging products!

Northern Strands is proudly Saskatoon, Saskatchewan owned and operated.

Northern Strands Saskatoon location now offers hand signal training in Saskatchewan for boom equipment operation to complement our 1 Day Crosby Rigging Course. Upon request, your employees will be given a copy of the Newberry Handbook for Riggers, and instructed on the hand signals therein at the end of the Crosby Rigging Course.

For more information on Rigging and Hand Signal Training:  http://www.northernstrands.com/crosby-rigging.aspx