There are significant risks to the safety of workers when it comes to using lifting equipment. It’s therefore extremely vital that all employees stay vigilant and ensure that all the necessary safety precautions are put into place, safety practices implemented, and safety guidelines adhered to, so that the chances of these accidents are minimized.
Otherwise, accidents could occur and cause fatal injuries, delays to the project and damage to the environment that is costly to recoup, and in the worst case – death. By providing a safe work environment, you can reduce the risk of accidents, unwanted delays, or any unfortunate outcome. Here are the top five tips we have for maintaining safety.
Before any lifting operation, it is vital to conduct a risk assessment of the operation to outline and assess the chances and severity level of accidents that could potentially occur. This assessment should be followed by preventive measures that reduce the risk of it occurring. For a more efficient and seamless lifting operation, this risk assessment should be conducted right from the very start during planning stages.
On top of that, it is vital that every piece of equipment is thoroughly checked before usage, and workers can refer to the maintenance manual that is provided with all lifting equipment for the necessary components to check for. These are typically:
- Visual inspection of the lifting equipment
- Testing the equipment’s functions
- Ensure that the equipment is fitted with the appropriate safety devices
- Testing the functionality of safety precautions and devices
- Testing the functionality of the emergency stop device
Without these checks, everyone involved in the operation will be at risk.
Every heavy lifting equipment comes with a Working Load Limit (WLL) that must be strictly adhered to – this is the maximum weight that the equipment can safely lift.
Additionally, it is also important to check for the stability of the loads that require lifting.
There have been many reported accidents where cranes being transported on commercial vehicles were not properly secured and hit overhead bridges during transit.
Therefore, all loads, especially those with loose components, or equipment that has already been used and is in transit between jobs, must be tightly secured to the equipment before lifting, or a fatal accident could otherwise occur.
All lifting operations require a lifting plan that incorporates a risk assessment right from the start. While routine lifting operations may only require a generic lifting plan supported by an on-site risk assessment and personal briefing, high-risk operations require additional planning to ensure that the all lifting is safe to conduct. This lifting plan should include some of the following:
- The personnel required and their roles, responsibilities, and skillsets
- A Permit-to-Work system for all lifting operations involving tower, mobile or crawler crane (as specified in Part III of the WSH (Construction) Regulations)
- The nature and weight of load
- Type and location of lifting points;
- The lifting gears and equipment required
- External or environmental factors that affect the safety of the lifting operation
- The availability of a safe place for personnel to gather during lifting operations
Workers have a tendency to position themselves underneath a load during lifting operations despite the obvious risks of being hit by the loads being lifted.
It is extremely important to maintain a safe distance away from the loads being lifted in the case of any equipment malfunctioning.
Workers also tend to jump on and off the truck bed while transporting loads due to convenience. This is extremely risky and should be avoided. Instead, hydraulic lifts can be used to lift and position a load on the truck bed easily and quickly so that operators can carry out their duties simply by operating a crane.
Workers should never be rusty with their skills and knowledge about lifting operations and the equipment involved. Being trained only at the start of their career is not sufficient, and oftentimes, they require refresher courses and advancement courses to update their knowledge and keep them in touch with the skills that they need.
These are only five safety precautions that every lifting operator should implement. While they appear to be insignificant, they’re extremely vital to ensuring maximum safety and minimum risks for the workers and environment.
- - -
Supporting Lifting Equipment and Amusement Park Rides with TÜV Rheinland
Ensure the safety and reliability of your lifting equipment by complying to global statutory standards
Performing more than 1,000 inspections a day, TÜV Rheinland is your trusted service provider for inspection, testing, verification and certification of all types of cranes, lifting equipment and amusement park rides! Our experts will conduct thorough examinations of your assets to determine if they are performing at 100% at your facility or construction site.
Whether you're a manufacturer, owner, operator or maintainer, it is your responsibility to ensure your equipment is safe and compliant with global statutory standards. TÜV Rheinland is currently the designated inspection body for lifting equipment and amusement park rides in many countries around the world.
- - -
🏗 Cranes and Lifting Equipment
- Design and Construction
- Equipment hazard, risk evaluation, risk assessment
- Consulting and training
- Surveillance on construction
- Technical documentation review
- Services as Notified Body for the EU Machinery directive (2006/42/EC), to place on the market machinery across EU
- Commissioning
- Site safety inspections for construction and installation
- Technical documentation review (technical construction file, safety manuals)
- Inspection acc. to local Health and Safety standards (putting into service)
- Operation
- Periodic safety inspections
- Assessment after modification of an equipment
- Maintenance audits
- Accident and damage evaluation
🎢 Amusement Park Rides
- Design and Construction
- Machinery hazard, risk evaluation, risk assessment
- EC type-examination for machinery (MD 2006/42/EC)
- Goods inspection
- Consulting and training
- Surveillance on construction
- Site safety inspections for construction and installation
- Commissioning
- Final acceptance test
- Technical documentation review (structural calculations, pneumatic, hydraulic, electric and electronic controls)
- Operation
- Periodic safety inspections
- Operational life extension testing
- Accident and damage evaluation
- Valuation of machinery
TÜV Rheinland’s Customer Success Stories
GASCO @ Abu Dhabi, UAE
In 2014, TUV Rheinland was awarded a large-scale contract to provide comprehensive inspection, testing and certification services for all cranes, lifting appliances and loose gear at several GASCO gas liquefaction plants in the Emirates of Abu Dhabi. This included overhead cranes, mobile cranes and elevators for goods and passengers.
Conducted by four experts, inspection work started in November 2014 and continued every six months for five years. These kinds of inspections are statutory in the United Arab Emirates in order to prevent accidents, equipment failures and plant hazards.
GASCO, Abu Dhabi Gas Industries Ltd., is an operating company engaged in the extraction of natural gas liquids (NGL) from associated and natural gases in the United Arab Emirates. The company is currently one of the world‘s largest gas processing companies and its priority is to maximize production while still maintaining the highest possible safety standards.
Qatar Petroluem, Qatar
TÜV Rheinland was appointed by Qatar Petroleum to inspect lifting equipment and to verify certificates of its lifting equipment through a three-year contract to inspect all its lifting equipment, lifting operators, riggers, passenger and cargo elevators, escalators and gas cylinders at all locations.
In addition to the inspection of its lifting equipment, all certificates of contractors’ lifting equipment, which are involved in various projects, have to be reviewed and verified by TUV Rheinland.
- - -
With our support, you can expect to:
- Meet all statutory requirements with independent and non-biased inspection carried out at your facility and construction site
- Be confident that your assets are working properly and in tip-top condition so that you can ensure a safe working environment for your employees, customers and partners
- Maximize uptime and planned outages to minimize operational impact