Tractel

The Tirfor owes its principle to Simon Faure, who in 1929 developed and filed the first French patent (FR687232) for a portable lifting and pulling machine working on a passing wire rope, a departure from drum winches, and registered the Tirfor trademark in France the same year. The mechanism uses two pairs of self-gripping jaws, driven alternately by a lever, to walk the rope through the machine over an almost unlimited length, for loads from a few hundred kilograms to twelve tonnes. Tractel itself dates the Tirfor winch to 1941, calling it 'a revolution in its day', and has since taken out numerous improvement patents; the mark is registered in more than ninety countries and the company campaigns against the generic 'tire-fort' spelling used by imitators.

Tractel sells the machine for construction, electricity and telecommunications work, rescue 'and other demanding applications requiring long rope travel'; its portability and independence from a vehicle's engine and electrics are what commend it to Land Rover recovery kits. The current TU series, the TU8, TU16 and TU32 with working load limits of 800, 1,600 and 3,200 kg, weighs from 8.4 to 27 kg, runs on Tractel wire rope with a telescopic handle, carries shear-pin overload protection and is certified to EN 13157 and the Machinery Directive.

Tractel's French manufacturing company, Tractel SAS, is at Route Nationale 19, Saint-Hilaire-sous-Romilly in the Aube, registered as a maker of lifting and handling equipment; the group has further factories in Germany, Poland, Spain, Turkey, the United States (Minneapolis and Houston), Canada (Toronto and Montreal), Shanghai and Singapore, subsidiaries in nineteen countries, some 10,000 distributors and about 1,100 employees, with its headquarters at 12 rue de l'Industrie, Foetz, Luxembourg. Beyond the Tirfor the range covers Minifor and Tirak powered hoists, Blocfor fall arresters, Travsmart lifelines, Topal clamps and load-measurement systems.

Owned latterly by the private-equity house Cinven, Tractel was sold on 1 August 2022 to Alimak Group AB of Sweden for EUR 500 million on a cash- and debt-free basis, the deal completing on 21 November 2022; at the time Tractel had about 1,000 staff and revenue of EUR 207 million in the year to September 2022. A new logo and 'broader strategic transformation' were announced in June 2026.