Posted By Hilary Charlton Following a recent fatality at the Land Rover plant where a maintenance contractor used the motor eyebolts to lift a vertical trunk pump and was crushed when the eyebolts failed, I have to re-examine the products that we sell to eliminate the risk of this arising from our pumps. We too sell pumps and motors each of which has an individual eyebolt for the component, neither of which should be considered adequate for lifting the complete assembly. For many years our Installation and Operating Manuals have stated that these eyebolts should only be used to lift the individual component and not the assembly. I now need to find a better way of doing this. We need the individual eyebolts to move the item round our plant and for assembly purposes. I would welcome any suggestions on this that would serve to make it safer for our customers. Thanks in advance

Posted By steve e ashton And, if the 'installed assembly' is likely to need moving in the future - would it be possible for the designers to include lifting arrangements that ARE adequate for the task? A dedicated and clearly marked jacking point, clear slinging groves, or a purpose fitted eyebolt....? Producing a lifting plan for unusual loads is far easier when the designers of the load have made appropriate provision at the outset... Steve

Posted By Seth Pierce Just a suggestion, as I'm not 100% certain on the make up/properties of the assemblies to be lifted, but have you thought of an industrial magnet, attached to an electronic, hand operated fork lift system? Another system we used was to design two load bearing points into the equipment (basically 2 holes were fabtricated into the equipment, that would enable the assembly to be securly attahced to a customised vice fitting consisting of two high strength nylon pins with male/female attachments. We were then able to attach the assembly and vice to a suitable trolleys and wheel the assembly to the required locations. I realise these actions are probably very specific to our work place as we designed and fabricated all of the equipment but it may give you some food for thought. Best regards Seth

Posted By Hilary Charlton Stuart I like the way you think - more money making ideas, excellent! But on a serious note, I think we will be blanking the holes and labelling very clearly but providing the eyebolts for lifting each individual component on a "bag and tag" basis. Most of our customers remove the eyebolts anyway because they do not have a certificate for them and then they substitute their own so I think this will probably be the way forward. The heavy duty magnet is a good idea but unfortunately our pumps are magnetically driven which means they contain a large amount of rare earth magnets - what the effect of a heavy duty magnet on these would be I don't even want to contemplate. Thanks for your help everyone Hilary PS If anyone has any answers to how to stop my desk squeaking as I type that would be even more useful!