TSF Marine Equipment Acquires ‘The Claw Lid Lifter’

It’s been close to eight years since Chuck Gifford invented “The Claw Lid Lifter,” a purely mechanical system that allows for barge lids to be set or removed without placing a single person on the barge.

Gifford left his longtime terminal operations job in 2017 to pursue the Claw full time. By 2023, the Claw was ready to be brought to market. Oertel Metal Works in Davenport, Iowa, was the manufacturer, and Gifford was the sole seller, deliverer and installer. The Claw was a success, but Gifford knew his invention could really take off with a bigger team. The desire to see the Claw really taking off led to talks between Gifford and Randy Simmonds, a longtime friend and colleague.

“Chuck had a very successful 2024, and during this time, we had several conversations about his desire to sell the business in order for it to reach its full potential, because it was more than he could handle by himself,” said Simmonds, vice president of operations for Carlisle & Bray Enterprises, which operates C&B Marine.

Simmonds acquired the Claw on January 1 through a newly formed company called TSF Marine (The Simmonds Family). Besides an ongoing relationship with Gifford, TSF Marine is a family affair, with Simmonds’ sons, Rob and Cole, and his wife, Michelle, all part of the company.

Simmonds thanked the ownership of C&B Marine, which allowed him to acquire the Claw while continuing in his role as vice president of operations.

“They were very supportive and actually provided some guidance along the way,” Simmonds said. “This whole thing would not have been possible without their generous support.”

Simmonds said Gifford’s and his passion for the Claw grows out of their roots in the industry and their background in terminal operations.

“I started on the river in 1989 as a deckhand, came up through the deck and got my pilot’s license before transitioning to land-side roles,” Simmonds said. “Chuck has been a crane and heavy equipment operator for 45 years. That is why we are so passionate about the safety benefits of the Claw.”

Removing and replacing barge lids by hand is incredibly labor intensive and carries inevitable risk to deckhands. With the Claw, though, no one has to be on the barge.

“It’s purely mechanical, a catch-and-release operation, I like to call it,” Gifford said in a 2024 interview with The Waterways Journal. “There are no springs or anything. It simply operates off of gravity.”

On top of the Claw is a T-head, which is where it locks into a material handler or crane’s clamshell bucket. The operator then lifts and lowers the Claw into place, lining it up with the recesses of the barge lid. Lowering the Claw onto the lid activates its catch-and-release mechanism, so that when the operator raises it, hooks on the end of the Claw’s arms grab the barge lid’s lift eyes. After the lid is hoisted and placed out of the way, setting it down again activates the catch-and-release function, freeing the Claw of the lift eyes.

Simmonds offered the operations of just one customer as an example of how the Claw can have a big impact on risk.

“We have had customers who have set and removed covers on over 3,000 barges in a single year,” Simmonds said. “If you figure nine covers per set, with four clamps on each cover, multiplied by 3,000 removals and 3,000 settings, that is 216,000 hand exposures from hooking chains eliminated. That is the impact from just one customer, and that is why we are so passionate about it.”

Simmonds said, thanks to increased production capacity at Oertel Metal Works, deliveries of the Claw are on pace to reach the goal for the year by early summer. More information is available at www.theclawlidlifter.com.

————

Featured photo caption: The family behind TSF Marine, including (from left) Rob, Randy, Michelle and Cole Simmonds. TSF Marine acquired The Claw Lid Lifter earlier this year. (Photo courtesy of TSF Marine)