Jaws of life are now Li battery based

[spackard]

Watching this clip from last night
When they first came out they were hydraulic and the FD would run a small petrol engine several feet away and have lines to the tool.
Latest ones have Li-ion battery packs. Everything’s pretty silent.

 

[Sequoiasoon]

They are lighter weight, easier to store on vehicles. Our department has them on all of our engines now. Used to be most places only had them on the "rescue" trucks between the engines to power them and all the hydraulic lines.

For volunteer departments with small crews and rural areas that also makes it much more readily available.

 

[researcher]

I was watching Chicago Fire the other day and noticed that it had no sound (Jaws of Life), I wondered if they were battery operated now.. and here's this posting!! I know Hollywood could make up anything but I knew they had Chicago (real) Fire dept advisors on that show, cool to know they're representing real life fire fighters!

 

[BrianF]

Our local FD has been using battery powered for quite a few years now. Silent, lighter, stronger and no worries about fuel storage. The boys were quite happy with them.

 

[AutoMechanic]

Wow I was definitely ignorant on these I always thought they were man powered haha. My mom used to be an EMT and had to use them but I never asked her how they worked. I had no idea about any hydraulics or batteries working them.

 

[chrismo]

https://www.holmatro.com/en

Holmatro is the manufacturer of those tools and probably most similar tools you see around. Fun fact they’re actually electro-hydraulic and max out at over 10000psi. The basic design for most of these tools is deceptively simple - a hydraulic piston driving levers on pivots - but they work very effectively. Cordless tools have existed for maybe 15? years and I believe the first version used Dewalt batteries as Holmatro had not developed their own by that point.

The department I work for uses them mainly on rescue trucks and in caches at remote stations but hasn’t committed to going full electric.

 

[97prizm]

Watching this clip from last night
When they first came out they were hydraulic and the FD would run a small petrol engine several feet away and have lines to the tool.
Latest ones have Li-ion battery packs. Everything’s pretty silent.

I wonder if they'll have a set replacement by hours or usage like aviation parts? The last thing you'd want is for it to fail at -10 degrees when you need it.

 

[SwampSurvivor]

Wow I was definitely ignorant on these I always thought they were man powered haha. My mom used to be an EMT and had to use them but I never asked her how they worked. I had no idea about any hydraulics or batteries working them.

The original jaws of life was a man powered portapower with a set of jaws that opened up wide instead of clamp