Safety In The Use Of Lifting & Moving Equipment

Safety should always be the first priority when using any lifting or moving equipment. Whether you are an employee of a company that uses these machines or the owner of a business that utilizes them, it is important to know how to use them safely. This blog post will discuss some general safety tips for using lifting and moving equipment.

An amendment to LOLER included the positioning and the installation of the lifting equipment and the organization of lifting operations

Positioning and the installation of lifting equipment

Lifting the equipment must be positioned and installed to reduce the risks, so far as is reasonably practicable, from:

• equipment or a load striking a person;
• a load drifting, falling freely, or being released unintentionally.

Lifting equipment should be positioned and installed to minimize the need to lift loads over people and to prevent crushing in extreme positions. It should be designed to stop safely in the event of a power failure and not release its load.

Lifting equipment, which follows a fixed path, should be enclosed with suitable and substantial interlocked gates and any necessary protection in the event of power failure.

1. Check suitable clothing and assess the load. The heaviest side of the body.
2. Place the feet apart – bend knees.
3. Firm grip – close to the body, Slight bending of the back, hips, and knees at the start.
4. Lift smoothly to the knee level and then waist the level. No further bending of the back.
5. With clear visibility, move forward without twisting. Keep the load close to the waist. Turn by moving the feet. Keep your head up. Do not look at the load.
6. Set the load down at waist level or knee level and then on the floor.

The organization of lifting operations

Every lifting operation, that is, lifting or lowering of a load, shall be: properly planned by the competent person;

• appropriately supervised;
• carried out in a safe manner.

The person planning the operation should have adequate practical and theoretical knowledge and experience in planning lifting operations. The plan needs to address the risks identified by the risk assessment and identify the resources, procedures, and responsibilities required to carry out any lifting operation safely.

For routine simple lifts, a plan will normally be the responsibility of the people using the lifting equipment. For complex lifting operations, for example, where two cranes are used to lift one load, a written plan may need to be produced each time.

The planning should include: the need to avoid suspending loads over occupied areas, visibility, the attaching/ detaching and securing of loads, the environment, the location, the possibility of overturning, the proximity to other objects, any lifting of people, and the pre-use checks required for the equipment.

Summary of the requirements for lifting operations

There are four general requirements for all lifting operations:

• use strong, stable and suitable lifting equipment;
• the equipment should be positioned and installed correctly;
• the equipment should be visibly marked with the safe working load (SWL);
• lifting operations must be planned, supervised, and performed in a safe manner by competent people.