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#1 Posted : 21 October 2009 14:16:00(UTC)
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Posted By ohreally I'd welcome thoughts on the following. A decision appears to have been taken in the workplace to permit some members of staff access into a lift motor room, these staff don't have an engineering or maintenence background.The potential hazards are 3 phase electricity supply (they are being asked to isolate this supply out of hours - there are maintenance staff on call) and high pressure hydraulics. Door mounted signage states unauthorised entry prohibited into plant room. What constitutes unauthorised in this context? Any specific regs on lifts and competant persons?
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#2 Posted : 21 October 2009 14:24:00(UTC)
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Posted By seanc As long as they have had some instruction from a lift engineer i cannot see any problem. As you have stated that there is hydraulics, there shouldn't be any moving parts in the motor room, and switching off a 3 phase supply is simple. what i do not understand is why they are switching off the power to the lift? if for example the lift car is parked at the lowest floor when they switch off, there is a good chance the lift car will sink during the night and require a lift engineer to put it back in service.
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#3 Posted : 21 October 2009 14:46:00(UTC)
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Posted By Dave Merchant Access through lift rooms to get onto a rooftop is very common, and doesn't need formal training as a lift engineer - simply awareness training in the hazards and how to avoid them - however every site is different and the hazards can be far more significant than in the "normal" areas of the building, so every case needs assessment. Telecoms engineers only get about 20 minutes on lift/plant room hazards in their rooftop access courses, and we've not seen piles of accident reports because of it. The raft of signage is there to make the point very strongly that it's not likely to be safe, especially in older buildings where the room is the de-facto "enclosure" for the machinery, so we find exposed conductors, unguarded drives, fragile floors, poor lighting, etc. etc.; but it's up to the premises owner to decide who is or isn't authorized.
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#4 Posted : 21 October 2009 14:59:00(UTC)
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Posted By seanc As there is hydraulics the motor room will be located at the ground floor ( unless there is a basement) that is the whole idea of hydraulic lifts, they save adding a motor room on the roof of a building.
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#5 Posted : 21 October 2009 21:35:00(UTC)
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Posted By ohreally Thanks.
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#6 Posted : 22 October 2009 08:54:00(UTC)
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Posted By seanc Ohreally why are they switching the lift off?
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