My company is going to be installing stainless steel pipe work on a customer site. The pipe work will weight approx. 800Kg and will be installed at a height of 3.4 metres. We have access to a crane but don't want to be working off a suspended load. Does anyone have any ideas of equipment that we could use to support the pipe work while its being welded? 2 suggestions have been set up a block and chain arrangement from scaffolding or support the pipework on the scaffold itself however I'm unsure if scaffolding would be able to take the weight? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

You could use a couple of Genie Lifts, We use these for lifting beams prior to welding http://www.workplatforml...mbxIm4h80CFXMz0wod-E8Krw

The genie might be an option thanks for that All the welding that can be done on the floor is but the pipe work still needs to be supported to allow for the final welds. Working at height isn't the issue its how to stop the pipework coming crashing down im more concerned about.

we're waiting on the client to give us an idea of what space we will have as the vessels we are installing will be partially enclosed. This was why I was wonder if scaffolding could be used seeing that we will need it for the working at height anyway.

It seems that your company has won a job without 'walking' it [a poor practice that many companies do] - I advise that a competent pipe fabrication bod* walks the job so as no other surprises pop up *[engineer/foremen/designer or similar] Usually your fabrication engineer, designer or the foreman should have the answers about the mechanics of the job thereafter the H&S bod inputs into the protective methods of work and in order to give good advice here we would need much more info

talk to the tradesmen involved as if they do not know what to do then competence is lacking all round NB: I was personally in charge of >300 pipe installiation people at Heysham 2 with stainless pipe from micro bore up to wall thicknesses up to 100mm [note wall thickness not pipe daimeter] so I have an idea of pipe installiation as said before not enough detail best of luck