When a business uses lifting equipment, it is important that it has regular maintenance to ensure that it continues to be safe to use. One of the best ways to achieve this is to arrange regular maintenance and servicing for each piece of lifting tackle. This includes fork lift trucks, scissor lifts, stackers, pallet trucks and any hoists or cranes. In fact, any piece of equipment that you can use to lift objects will need checking.
According to the Health and Safety Executive, all such equipment must have a minimum of one scheduled service per year. Obviously equipment that has heavy usage will need to undergo maintenance at shorter intervals. It might be that a hoist or crane that lifts heavy weights several times a day has maintenance every six months or even more often.
It is also important that any users of the equipment take the responsibility to report any problems that they notice to management. This will allow the equipment can be examined before it develops a major issue. Often employees that use it regularly will notice that there is a problem well before it becomes serious enough for an engineer performing maintenance to notice.
Often, the best time to perform scheduled maintenance of any tackle is during shutdown periods. Many companies still have two week shutdowns during the summer where maintenance can be carried out, but if that is not the case it might need to be performed out of hours. Another option is to use an alternative piece of equipment during the maintenance window to prevent any loss of productivity.
During the maintenance, any parts that the engineer finds to be worn or damaged will need replacing. This will help to improve performance of the equipment as well as ensure safety for the operators. This might be a part, no matter how innocuous – it is much better to be safe than sorry when it comes to safety.
If an accident occurs involving a piece of lifting equipment, then an official investigation might follow. In this situation, it is important to be able to demonstrate that the equipment has undergone regular maintenance. Keeping copies of any service certificates can help to prove that the business follows any legal requirements and can help to absolve the business from full liability for the accident.
Any business that uses lifting equipment will need to ensure that it regularly undergoes maintenance. This will ensure that the equipment continues to operate correctly and that all operators and visitors continue to be safe.