Posted By Booney Morning All, I am looking for a mechanical solution for a manual handling issue and was hoping that someone may be able to give me some advice please? We get torque converters for Car transmissions delivered to us in metal stillages and these are currently offloaded by hand on to a trolley where they are transported to the work area. The TC’s weigh about 25kg each but are slightly awkward to lift being quite bulky and spherical in shape. Taking the TC’s out from the top rows of the stillage is relatively easy as there is no stooping involved however, the problem arises when we reach the bottom row as employees then have to reach into the stillage to lift the TC out, therefore potentially putting them at risk. I hasten to add we have had no reported incidents from this activity (surprisingly!) but I feel the potential for an injury is quite high. Changing the stillage is not an option as we have no control over them as these things get shipped all over the world; raising the stillage to make leaning in easier is also not an option as none of the sides are removable. Some sort of mechanical ‘grab’ would be ideal but my biggest problem is the shape of these things as there is nothing that I can see that a lifting aid could get hold of - has anyone else come across a similar situation please? Kind Regards

Posted By Frank Newman Booney, We do a lot of work with Renault and Volvo and see the same problems. They ask employees to work with technical to come up with a design which is safe and easy to use. Very often something like a couple of hooks on an overhead gantry. (100 kg sort of level) Prototypes are tested and approved by insurance engineers, given a serial number then produced in house as required. Employee adoption is usually very high. (except for the little bloke wearing a back-support belt who insisted on throwing reject engine blocks into the bin by hand. Saved him about 5 seconds on every 10th block) The other end of it is to work with your suppliers. Containers or pallets should be loaded in accordance with your instructions otherwise they will be refused and not paid for. In today's market there are always other suppliers out there. Merv

Posted By Booney Chris, you will shortly have mail Merv, I know where you are coming from however, our sole supplier also happens to be our parent company... Thanks both for the responses

Posted By David Bannister Booney, try a call to your competitors who may be interested in swapping H&S good practice for your industry. I do know that at least one has developed a partial solution to this problem by changing the pallets and using lifts. If you email me I will give you a name: david@liability-risk(leavethisbitout).com

Posted By John Lewis I have seen a system whereby the stillage sits on a tilting base so that it can be gently turned as the TC's are taken out, reducing the bending but unfortunately perhaps introducing a stretching element. Due to the shape, I assume there ae ribs on the casing, vacuum lifters may not be much of an option, but if there are smooth surfaces to get a good vacuum on it might work. I found them brilliant in the glass industry with panels up to 40kg. The manufacturers are quite happy to make new or adapt their designs so you get a proper CE mark.

Posted By Booney You are right John, there are ribs on them. We would have liked to get them lifted by the shaft and there is a groove inside for a circlip however, I do not think this would be sufficient for a lifting device to hold the weight involved. Thanks again to all who have responded

Posted By Booney Morning Joe, thanks for the input - I am going to look at that as a possible long term option but as stated previously, our sole supplier is our parent company and influencing them to make changes would take a while to say the least! In the meantime, I feel we have to manage the risks at least on a short-term basis while we look for a longer term solution. Thanks again to all who have taken the time to look and contribute