Rank: New forum user
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Do you carry out lifting operations with excavators? Have you read the Strategic Forum Plant Safety Groups new safety guide?
Having spoken to many in the construction industry, it appears that most are totally unaware of fact the Strategic Forum Plant Safety Group has published a new safety guide called Lifting operations with 180 and 360 excavators in November 2017. The few that did know were either in the process of re-writing their procedures or were claiming they had banned all lifting with excavators. The problem with “Prohibition” is it drives things underground (forgive the groundwork pun). I wonder if the people putting a ban in place have ever seen how much lifting an excavator actually does on the average construction site? We have already identified 50 items (manhole rings & boxes, clay and concrete pipes, Rammex ect ect)
A crane lifting AP lifting plan is easy compared with an excavator one. There is so much more to take into consideration when lifting with excavators, even as a SME we have over 40 + manufacture's duty charts (3 tonne, 5 tonne, 8 tonne, 13 tonne, 21 tonne, 35 tonne) and different makes have different capacity’s. Then each have potentially different arm lengths and shoe sizes, then it's blade up, blade down, or no blade, over the front over the side etc, etc. Then you have ground conditions and levels, the height of the load & angle of the lifting chains/slings, the radius. Pick carry duties have to be reduced as the manufactures don’t provide this information in their duty charts. Then you have the fact duty charts don’t take into account the weight of quick hitches..........
I would be very interested to see how others are complying, as this is causing me a major amount of work, not to mention the increased consumption of headache tablets!
Edited by user 28 March 2018 11:57:33(UTC)
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Rank: Super forum user
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I know you got it right in your first sentence. Lifting with excavators. Excavators were designed to excavate not lift. Sadly things have progressed by using machinery designed to do one thing and making it do another. I helped a friend from a major plant company a few years back when this reared it’s head and that was getting a few of his supervisors through the Lift supervisors course. If these machines are going to be used for lifting then there must be Appointed Persons and Lift Supervisors controlling them.
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Rank: Super forum user
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Never forgetting that the lift equipment needs checking. Chains/straps etc...
Although, last week I watched as a JCB was used to lower pipes into a trench, with rope as the sling...wrapped around the "teeth" on the bucket...
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Rank: New forum user
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