The TECNA 9346 is an industrial spring tool retractor - a retractor tool balancer for tools weighing 4.4-8.8 lb, for example drills, small nutrunners or riveting tools - and it works equally with any other tool in that weight range.

Cable travel is 8.2 ft (2,500 mm) and capacity is adjustable across 4.4-8.8 lb (2-4 kg). It is a retractor, so when you let go the tool returns to its rest position, clear of the work, rather than staying where you leave it. A spring drum inside winds the cable in and carries the tool's weight, which is why retractors like this are also called spring balancers. Hanging the tool takes its weight off the operator's arm, which cuts fatigue on repetitive assembly-line work, and keeps the tool, and its hose or cable, off the bench and off the floor, so they last longer.

This model has an automatic ratchet lock. It stops the cable rewinding so you can work without it pulling back on the tool - inside a vehicle body, for example. Let the tool rise slowly to lock it; to release, pull down slightly and let it rise quickly. Let it rise at a sensible speed and it will not lock when you do not want it to. The lock can be disabled by tightening a screw, if you would rather not have it.

Do not need the ratchet lock? The TECNA 9336 is this same retractor without it, at the same capacity and cable travel.

If the drum spring ever breaks, a safety device blocks the balancer so the tool cannot fall. If it trips, do not try to free it - have the balancer serviced.

Size it on the total hanging weight - the tool, its accessories and the length of hose or cable the balancer lifts - which has to sit inside the capacity range. Electric, pneumatic and hydraulic tools all suspend the same way.

Specifications:

• Capacity: 4.4-8.8 lb (2-4 kg), adjustable
• Cable travel: 8.2 ft (2,500 mm)
• Unit weight: 6.92 lb (3.14 kg)
• Ambient temperature: 41 to 140 F (5 to 60 C)
• Stainless steel cable
• Rugged cast aluminium body
• Adjustable capacity
• Safety suspension
• Safety device against load dropping due to spring breakage
• Automatic ratchet lock to stop cable rewinding, can be disabled
• Adjustable stroke limiting device
• Cable guide in antifriction material
• Inert spring drum assembly
• Polyamide thimble
• GS safety mark

Extension cables are available if the balancer has to hang higher than the tool needs to reach: 1.6 ft (500 mm, 72966/0,5), 3.3 ft (1,000 mm, 72966/1), 8.2 ft (2,500 mm, 72966/2,5), 9.8 ft (3,000 mm, 72966/3) and 16.4 ft (5,000 mm, 72966/5), stainless steel, with an 80 mm carabiner.

Longer cable travel is built to order - 9.8 ft (3,000 mm) or 13.1 ft (4,000 mm) - and the 14.8 ft (4,500 mm) TECNA 9346/4,5 is on the store.

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. Always connect the safety suspension to a separate support, and set the stroke limiter so the tool never comes to rest above the operator.

Made in Italy, to DIN 15112. The standard TECNA line carries the GS safety mark. 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.

The same retractor is also built as the 9346NY with Dyneema rope instead of steel cable, the 9346IL for food processing and washdown areas, the 9346ES for ESD-protected areas and the 9346AX, ATEX-certified for gas atmospheres.

Other capacities in the 9346L-9350 series: 9346L (1.1-4.4 lb), 9347 (8.8-13.2 lb), 9348 (13.2-17.6 lb), 9349 (17.6-22 lb), 9350 (22-31 lb).

Browse all tool retractors with a ratchet lock. If you need the load to stay where you leave it instead of returning to rest, that is a zero-gravity balancer, not a retractor.

Supported in the USA by Tool Balancers USA.