When Should I Choose A Rim Gripper To Move My Drums

At St Clare Engineering we have a wide range of attachments for your drums and one of our most popular products is our Rim Gripper attachments.

Rim Grippers are generally the correct forklift truck attachments for handling Medium to High volumes of steel or plastic drums, and for any damaged or ‘out of round’ drums.

Drum Handling Rim Grippers
Drums and barrels with a top rim or chime can be easily moved using a rim gripper attachment on your forklift truck. The gripping head or ‘grab’ uses a weight-activated clamping mechanism to grip the drum rim between metal jaws – the lower jaw engages under the drum rim and as it takes the weight the upper jaw is triggered, giving a secure grip. The jaws will not let go until the drums are set to the ground, which releases the weight on the gripping jaws.
Drum handling rim grippers are suitable for use when lifting and handling a variety of drums:

• Drums that include a rim or chime strong enough to support the weight of the drum and its contents. Grab-O-Matic rim grip forklift truck attachments are suitable for steel open top and tight head drums, plastic ‘L’ ring drums and most fibre drums.
• Damaged drums and drums of various diameters and sizes. We can provide a special rim gripper for fibre drums which need a modified jaw, and a Twin Head Single Drum Handler to help spread the load on drums with a weaker rim or heavier weight.
• Mauser drums (open top plastic drums) Special model SS/AL gripping heads can be used to grab Mauser drums on the top rim.

Multi-drum Rim Grip attachments
It can save time and cost to move more than one drum at a time. For this reason, we offer a range of multi-drum solutions using rim gripper attachments for forklift trucks:

Double Drum Handler Rim Grip 2-DLR
Fitted with two Grab-O-Matic HD-1 gripping heads, the double rim grip allows the operator to handle a mixture of steel and plastic drums at the same time, or just a single drum.

Triple Drum Handler Rim Grip 3-DLR
Up to three drums can be handled at the same time using the Triple Drum Handler fitted with three rim grip heads.

Four Drum Handler Rim Grip 4-DLR
Move up to four drums with the Grab-O-Matic quad attachment for your forklift truck.

When not to use a rim gripper drum handler
Rim grip drum handling attachments can only be used if the rim of the drum or barrel is strong enough to take the weight of the drum and its contents.

Drum handling made easier
We have made it simple for you to handle any type of drum safely and efficiently. In addition to our rim and waist grippers we offer:

• Interchangeable gripping heads: all St Clare Engineering gripping head models are interchangeable on Grab-O-Matic fork attachment frames, so changing a gripping head is quick and easy.
• Quick Attach/Release system: allows your forklift truck operator to add or change forklift attachments quickly and safely. Alternatively, we can supply Chain & Clamp Fork Fixing in place of the standard T bolt fixing to secure the units.
• Drum Protection: to minimise dents and scratches on your drums we can supply rubber fenders or 150mm wide webbing drum supports on all rim grip models.

Expert advice on drum handling attachments for forklift trucks
We hope this two-part blog helps you understand when Waist Gripper or Rim gripper attachments are best, but we are always happy to share our expertise and advise on the best solutions for your drum handling needs.