The TECNA 9442RL is a food-industry zero-gravity tool balancer for tools weighing 154-176 lb, built for washdown areas - food and beverage, dairy, meat and poultry processing, bakery, and anywhere the equipment is cleaned and sanitised as part of the shift.

Zero-gravity means the load stays wherever you leave it instead of returning to a rest position - let go at mid-height and the tool simply hangs there, weightless to the operator. Cable travel is 9.8 ft (3,000 mm) and capacity is adjustable across 154-176 lb (70-80 kg).

What makes it the food version is rust-free materials throughout, inside and out. The aluminium housing carries a Rilsan treatment with a low surface roughness that makes it easier to clean down, the cable is stainless steel, and the loop and hook are stainless with added wear resistance. The grease is NSF-H1 food grade, and so are the cable guide, the shock absorber and the wire cap.

The same rust-free build gets specified for clean rooms and other controlled environments, where corrosion and shedding matter as much as washdown does.

It has a manual lock: turn the knob to the locked position to stop the drum, and back for normal working. Only operate the lock with the load hanging.

It also has a centrifugal speed limiter. If the drum ever turns faster than the safe limit - a load coming unhooked, a cable letting go - the limiter locks the drum. If it ever trips, take the balancer out of service and have it inspected before using it again.

Option B1 (7190000010) adds a reinforced locking and unlocking device you operate from floor level, so you can lock and release the load without reaching up to the balancer. It has to be specified when the balancer is ordered.

At this capacity the balancer is carrying the entire weight of a heavy powered tool, so the operator is only guiding it.

Size it on the tool's actual weight including hoses and fittings. Electric, pneumatic and hydraulic tools all suspend the same way.

Specifications:

• Capacity: 154-176 lb (70-80 kg), adjustable
• Cable travel: 9.8 ft (3,000 mm)
• Rust-free materials throughout, inside and out
• Aluminium housing with Rilsan treatment
• NSF-H1 certified food grade grease
• Ambient temperature: 41 to 140 F (5 to 60 C)
• Unit weight: 58.97 lb (26.75 kg)
• Stainless steel cable
• Food grade cable guide, shock absorber and wire cap
• Stainless steel loop and hook with increased wear resistance
• Manual lock to hold the load at any height
• Safety device against load dropping due to spring breakage
• Centrifugal speed limiter
• Adjustable stroke limiting device
• Inert spring drum assembly

Extension cables are available if the balancer has to hang higher than the tool needs to reach: 500 mm (7260000319) and 1,000 mm (7260000320), stainless steel, with a 120 mm carabiner.

The structure you hang it from has to be stronger than five times the balancer weight plus the maximum load - and if several balancers share one structure, five times the total of all of them, each on its own independent connection point.

Made in Italy, to DIN 15112. Breaking load is guaranteed at a minimum of five times the declared maximum load on every sensitive part. Every production lot is sample-tested too: a static test at 1.25 times the maximum rated load held for ten minutes at full stroke, and a dynamic test at 1.1 times maximum load run for an hour.

Other capacities in the 9441RL-9444RL series: 9441RL (132-154 lb), 9443RL (176-198 lb), 9444RL (176-220 lb).

If you want the tool to return to a rest position when you let go instead of staying put, that is a retractor rather than a zero-gravity balancer. The food industry range covers both.

Not working in a food environment? The standard zero-gravity balancers are the same units without the food build.

Supported in the USA by Tool Balancers USA.