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!

The Northern Strands Training Division is growing!  With growth comes the need for additional health and safety trainers.   Northern Strands has invited renowned trainer, Cassenna Parmeter to join our training team.  We're excited to have Cassenna on our team.  She is well known throughout the health and safety industry and brings a wealth of experience to the Northern Strands training team. Welcome aboard Cassenna!

Northern Strands has officially added 3 new health and safety courses, with more to be announced in the near future.  The first three health and safety classes we've added are Advanced Fire Training, E.R.T. Industry Training and Medical First Responder Training.   We also offer courses in First Aid & CPR, Suspended Access Equipment Training, Crosby Rigging, Fall Arrest, Wirelock Socketing and Tugger Safety.  

Visit our website training page to learn more about our courses: http://www.northernstrands.com/training.aspx

Here are our top ten reasons to train with Northern Strands

1. Proven strategic results
2. Customized safety programs
3. Reduce acccidents
4. Experienced safety leaders
5. reliable customer service
6. Guaranteed safety motivation
7. Production and distribution of all items
8. Target specific safety topics
9. Build employee morale
10. Engage your workforce

Check out the PDF of our promotional training postcard: Training Postcard.pdf (986.06 kb)

Northern Strands is proudly Saskatoon, Saskatchewan owned and operated.

Northern Strands and it's employees recently received a letter of thanks and appreciation from Winsafe  Corp. regarding the launch of the SaskPower Poplar River Boiler Maintenance Work Platform (BMWP).  Northern Strands Suspended Access and Training divisions were instrumental in the successful launch of the BMWP.

Below is the testimonial letter from Winsafe:

"I would like to take a moment to thank you, Northern Strands, and the Northern Strands team for their contributions to the recent successful first launch of the SaskPower Poplar River Boiler Maintenance Work Platform (BMWP).

As you may be aware, while in transit to Saskatchewan, a number of training, certification, and documentation requirements were conveyed to us. Ray Nemethi’s efforts on the ground while our team was in the air were instrumental in making it possible for our employees to be able to perform work at the SaskPower site and to be in a position to successfully perform the launch. It clearly tooka great deal of coordination in a short period of time, and we are very thankful for those efforts.

Also, Ryan Green was able to travel to our hotel in Assiniboia on equally short notice to provide Fall Arrest and Confined Space certification training. We were impressed with his presentation and teaching skills and are likewise thankful for his efforts and his flexibility.

This project carries a very high profile and has been of significant importance for both of our organizations. The efforts put forth by Ray, Ryan, and other behind-the-scenes members of the Northern Strands team are certainly solid reminders of why we are pleased to be partnered with you."

What a great testimonial letter from Winsafe!   Thank you Winsafe!

Northern Strands is proudly Saskatoon, Saskatchewan owned and operated and are the official supplier of Winsafe products in Canada.

Northern Strands is on the cover of Business and Industry Magazine!  We are featured in the Mining edition of the magazine.  It's our 45th Anniversary and this is a great start to the year.  This is an exciting time for Northern Strands.  Check out the fantastic cover!  You might recognize him...

The article mentions all 5 divisions of Northern Strands and how we have evolved into the company we are today.   Mining and Attachments, General Rigging, Engineered Fall Protection, Suspended Access and Training are all referenced.   Very interesting article with some great quotes from our owner, Mr. Clarke.

Here is the link to the PDF of the article! 

Northern Strands cover page and article in Business and Industry Magazine.pdf (2.37 mb)