In the mid 1960’s, Dominion Virginia Power (DVP; Richmond, Virginia, U.S) constructed the first operational 500-kV transmission lines in the United States. These lines traversed a 350-mile circuitous route from the company’s Mount Storm Power Station in the Allegheny Mountains of West Virginia to the Piedmont of central Virginia near Richmond. NESC heavy loading criteria formed the basis of the new line design, but with terrain specific additions that included a vertical loading based on radial ice thickness on the conductors of two inches for the sections in the mountainous regions, and a 70mph hurricane wind loading. A new family of weathering steel, lattice structures were fabricated to meet the design requirements. DVP used five types of suspension guyed-structures to support the conductors in the rugged mountainous sections of these 500-kV lines.

In strong competition with other suppliers PIAB Sweden AB proposed to DEMATIC an overload protection system to monitor the load in the crane and switch off at slack rope condition and overload. Additionally, the maintenance department of the end-user (HKM) also specified the requirement for recording of the hoist operation as per FEM 9755-3, FEM 9511, ISO 12482-1. The cranes are designed with an "anti sway" system and have an 8x2 reeving configuration with eight dead ends.

In the welding and repair plant at the CATERPILLAR service depot in Upplands Väsby, Sweden there is an Electrical Overhead Traveling crane with two hoists, capacity 5 ton and 10 ton respectively. The crane was designed for a load combination of max. 10 ton. The two hoists are used separately or jointly but must never be loaded with more than the sum of 10 ton. Individual overload protection of the two hoists was also required. Furthermore, the customer specified an overload protection system offering separate visual load indications since determining the approximate weight of assemblies would be very useful.

News and pictures are transmitted via satellites. This technology has many advantages and requires updated and modernized transmission antenna masts and towers. Mast-sections are hoisted onto towers by winch. It may happen, however, that a section being hoisted may snag and cause damage to the tower. Therefore overload guards shall be used, which monitors the load in the winch and interrupts the hoisting if and when necessary. Regular maintenance of sections and parts of installations such as masts or antenna sections may involve lowering antenna-sections to the ground. Again, it may happen that the sections being lowered snag on the stay wires and further lowering should be stopped.

Consumers Energy, Jackson, Michigan, US have had problems controlling the tension forces in the messenger wire. The messenger wire serves as lightning protection and provides protection to the entire aerial spacer cable System. The system allows trees to grow much closer than a bare wire system. This means dramatic reductions in requirements for tree trimming intervals and subsequent cost-savings. The system also eliminates the major pruning of trees that would have been required in cases of bare systems. Of great importance is to be able to have an accurate tension measurement in this messenger wire to match the climatic changes in tension due to our door temperature variations, which will cause traction and contraction in the wire. A mis-tensioned wire could fatigue and damage the spacer cable system.

Bowlin Construction, Walton, Kentucky, USA is a tower constructing company. Additionally they have maintenance contracts for some 550 towers at different customers in the US. Business is strongly expanding. The contracts specify an annual inspection and control of each guy wire for every tower. Until now, this work has been time consuming, expensive and risky, since an "in line measurement" with standard dynamometers has been utilized. The Bowlin management searched for a more efficient and safe method and measuring instruments. They discovered the PIAB RTM 20D Rope Tension Meter, a battery-operated measuring instrument designed to measure the tension force in cables, ropes and wires..