Lifting Equipment Saves Time and Reduces Risk of Back and Neck Injuries
Lifting Equipment helps workers move heavy supplies and materials quickly. It also reduces the risk of back and neck injuries due to manual lifting.
All equipment must be carefully examined and inspected before use. It must also be thoroughly cleaned before and after each use. It must also comply with PUWER, which places duties on employers and those who control the use of work equipment.
Lifting Devices
The building of large structures and industrial facilities requires a huge amount of materials to be moved, lifted and lowered. Many of these are heavy or cumbersome, such as car tyres and drums, or stored on pallets, crates or boxes. Rather than having employees fumble and struggle to manually move these items, it’s much easier to have lifters do the hard work for them.
There are standard lifting devices configured to handle common loads Lifting Equipment Suppliers such as bars, pipes and stacks of coils, as well as standard structural shapes. However, there are also customized below-the-hook lifters that can be engineered to meet very specific requirements. This is because the size, shape and center of gravity of a load will have an impact on how it needs to be gripped.
A hoist is a device that raises or lowers a load by means of a drum or lift wheel around which chain, fibre rope or wire cable wraps. A crane is an apparatus for hoisting and lowering a load by means of a boom, jib or gantry, fixed to a building or other structure. Examples of cranes include wall / pillar cranes, derricks, swing jibs and davits.
Cranes
A crane is a large machine that can lift loads and move them around a jobsite. They come in many different sizes and are used for construction, maintenance and inspection. They can be rented or bought and range from small hydraulic models that are suitable for short-term use to massive tower cranes attached to skyscrapers.
The earliest lifting machines were pulley systems that were powered by animal or human power. They were adapted for industrial use in the Middle Ages to help load and unload ships at docks and assist with construction. Modern cranes can be powered by motorized, pneumatic, electric or hydraulic systems. They can also be equipped with a variety of crane attachments such as tongs or hooks, and they have safety mechanisms that prevent accidental operation or damage.
Truck-mounted cranes are suitable for rough terrain and can be moved to a new location on the worksite easily. These types of cranes are often equipped with counterweights to stabilize them while carrying a load. They can be equipped with a boom extension or a luffing jib. Boom extensions look like long poles that extend the boom, while luffing jibs have steel bars welded together in W or V shapes that resemble trellises and allow them to be set at a specific length.
To reduce worker fatigue and injury, it’s essential to use proper lifting equipment. The right equipment can improve facility efficiency, prevent strain on workers and protect product or materials from damage.
Forklifts
Designed to move large and heavy loads quickly and efficiently, forklifts are one of the most valuable pieces of Material Handling Equipment (MHE). Available in a wide range of models, designs, attachment types, tires and other options, forklifts can be used in virtually any setting to improve workflow and productivity.
For example, retail businesses rely on forklifts to help them keep up with inventory and ensure that products are properly organized on store shelves. Forklifts are also essential to warehouses, where they can move loads around more easily and reduce the amount of manual labor needed for tasks like organizing storage spaces or transporting pallets between areas.
When choosing a forklift, consider Lifting Equipment Suppliers the load capacity and size, whether you need to work indoors or outdoors and the terrain where you plan on using the forklift. Also, think about the forklift’s maneuverability – some are better at maneuvering in tight spaces than others.
Some forklifts are built specifically to work in cold environments like refrigerated warehouses, with features like insulated cabins and temperature-controlled compartments. They can also be equipped with special tires to handle snow or ice, and they may have fuel and hydraulic fluid tanks constructed into the truck frame to eliminate the need for a separate tank. Other forklifts, such as tele-handlers, have long, extendable arms that can lift materials to heights that regular forklifts can’t reach.
Lifting Tables
Lifting tables are designed to reduce the amount of lifting and lowering materials that must be done by hand. This helps to prevent the physical and mental fatigue that can lead to musculoskeletal disorders, such as back pain. It also helps to keep loads stable while they are being raised or lowered. This helps to eliminate the danger of valuable products, parts and equipment being dropped during the process.
There are several different versions of lift tables depending on the type of work needed and maximum load size. Typical options include tilting tables that can be set to various angles to help with assembly operations or straight lifting tables that have both lift and tilt functions. There are even portable models that can be taken from one place to another to accommodate changing requirements and a variety of work environments.
The basic components of a lift table include the base frame, guide rollers or tracks and a hydraulic mechanism. The base frame is often made of rigid and sturdy metals and may be built into a pit, or may stand on wheels or casters.
The hydraulic mechanism powers the legs of the lift table through a power pack (most commonly electro hydraulic) which is made up of an electric motor, hydraulic pump, hydraulic tank, cylinders, piping and valving. When the UP button is activated, hydraulic fluid from the tank flows through the pump and into the cylinders which then mechanically raise the platform. When the DOWN button is activated, the cylinders descend and a check valve opens allowing hydraulic fluid to flow back to the tank.
