Lifting Equipment

Lifting Equipment

By Christine Macguire

At times it turns out to be the duty of the employers' to make the provision and maintenance of plant and systems of work that are, so far as reasonably practicable, safe and without risks to health. Work equipment includes machinery; tools or equipment used by an employee at work e.g. hammers, knives, and machinery, lifting equipment, computers, photocopiers, ladders, forklift trucks and even your kettle!

Hazards from work equipment can occur due to various reasons:

• Entrapment - where parts of the body could be caught in parts of equipment.

• Impact - where the body could be crushed by moving parts or by items being processed.

• Contact - where the body could touch sharp edges, hot surfaces or abrasive surfaces.

• Entanglement - where hair, clothing or jewelry could get caught in parts of a machine.

• Ejection - where parts of equipment or materials being worked on could fly off and hit the body.

Overhead lifting presents a very real danger of severe injury or loss of life if lifting equipment is not used properly. Properly trained and qualified persons who understand lifting equipment selection, inspection and use should only use lifting equipment. The safest and most suitable work equipment should be selected for the work to be done.

Good design and construction can ensure the safety of lifting machines by:

- Providing suitable operating controls which are easy to see and use and which prevent the equipment being turned on accidentally.

- Having a suitable emergency stop control.

- Failing to safe when something goes wrong.

- Minimizing risks during maintenance and cleaning as well as normal operation.

During the selection and purchase stage one should make sure that you obtain technical information and compare this to other lifting equipment; check that the lifting equipment has a CE mark (i.e. complies with European standards for design and manufacture); that you satisfy yourself you have obtained all the relevant safety information and that you ensure that there will be adequate training provided in the use of the work equipment.

Gone are the days when workers had to spend time lifting, carrying, holding, pushing, or pulling loads of material on construction sites. So employers have decided to not only reduce risks but also increase efficiency by stopping manual material handling and implementing advanced material handling equipments.

Lifting equipments used at work should be strong and stable enough for the particular use and marked to indicate safe working loads. If used safely, and in accordance to the work plan, in an organized manner should yield competent performance and effective output.

Lifting equipment includes any equipment used at work for lifting or lowering loads, including attachments used for anchoring, fixing or supporting it. We can enlist the following equipments into various categories of lifting equipments:

a) Cranes, hoists and winches - hand or power operated.

b) Ropes, chains and slings of all materials used for lifting purposes.

c) Eyebolts, shackles, pulley blocks and gin wheels.

d) Lifting beams - portable or runway.

e) Specially designed lifting rigs, e.g. for handling of magnets, specialized equipment included in the experimental rigs etc.

f) Lifts - passenger and goods.

g) Fork lift trucks, power workers, similar devices and attachments used with the equipment.

When an item of lifting equipment is acquired or otherwise obtained, a test certificate must accompany it. Wire and fiber slings are exempt from the above requirement but a certificate must be obtained showing the safe working load and also include a reference to the batch sample test carried out on the material from which the rope of sling was made. A copy of the design information, including calculations, material specifications and limitations of use, shall be kept together with any relevant drawings which include the safe working load and the proof test requirements.