Nylacast Outrigger Pads Add Element of Safety for Operators

December 10, 2013 - Outrigger pads add safety to sites where cranes are used by increasing the surface area of outriggers in order to maintain stability, reduce ground loading, and provide additional support for equipment. For added safety in wet, wintery conditions, Nylacast has developed the Getagrip non-slip coating, which is applied to the upper surface of the crane outrigger pads. Getagrip’s non-slip coating can be optionally specified as part of a customized pads order.

The anti-slip coating helps prevent personnel walking over a Nylacast outrigger pad from slipping on the hard cast-nylon plastic surface. The bright yellow color used by Nylacast for its range of outrigger pads also makes them visible on site.

Nylacast cast nylon outrigger pads are equally reliable in harsh winter conditions, maintaining a high level of compressive strength and toughness even at extreme cold sub-zero temperatures, rated for continuous operation service down to -40° C.

Nylacast’s lightweight outrigger crane pads are manufactured by liquid casting; the process combines two yellow pigmented monomers activated in the mold. Once the reaction in the mold is compete, the finished solid yellow outrigger pad formed is a high performance nylon 6 / nylon 12 copolymer polyamide engineering plastic material.

Cast nylon is different from a conventional extruded or injection molded polyamide as during the casting process permanent polymer bonds are formed due to the anionic polymerization of the two monomers. As a consequence, cast nylon has no glass transition point (Tg) or heat deflection temperature (HTD), only a melting temperature of 220° C.

Depending on the size of crane, the Nylacast outrigger pad required ranges in size from 40mm up to 55mm thick and with dimensions from 300mm up to 1220mm; both round or square pads are available.