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Safety Certificates


daithi12

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Hi All

 

Last week I was involved with an event where we had to hire in some Chain Hoists which came with safety certificates.

 

Who is responsible for doing up these safety certs on rigging equipment.

Is it carried out by a trained person or just a competent person.

 

I presume they are inspected annually or should it be more often than that.

 

The reason I have a keen interest in this is because I was thinking about buying some hoists,steels and shackles in and was wondering is it going to be an extra cost during the year to get this inspected or is there some training I can do.

 

Thanks in advance.

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All this information is described in LOLER - the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations.

 

The legal line is that your 'lifting equipment' (IE your hoists) will need 12-monthly inspections, and your 'lifting accessories' (IE steels, shackles etc) will need 6-monthly inspections. If the hoists are used in an environment that a competent person would determine them to be at risk of deterioration faster than the expected rate, they should be inspected every 6 months. These must be performed by a "competent person", but since the general definition of competence stems from a mix of both training and experience, if you have neither, it's not looking good to do it yourself.

 

Besides the training / competence issue, many companies prefer to get things tested by a 3rd party for insurance reasons alone, and 'passing the buck' to them in terms of liability.

 

You can often do 'motor school' with the manufacturer of the hoist (AC handles CM's, and LTM on the Wirral do their own Loadguard training; some other manufacturers it's harder to arrange) but these only really related to basic first-line maintenance of the hoist, not performing it's legally-required inspection.

 

There is no actual requirement to get a certificate which you can send out with the hoist. It's perfectly common that inspection companies will supply one certificate with the serials of all the equipment that has been inspected on an inspection, meaning in TV studios and in theatres often the inspection certificate may have several hundred items on it.

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every rigging rental company will by default send out a copy of the latest test cert for the hoists it supplies. This will normally just be a printed list of serial numbers on company paper which states the last test date on it.

 

every production I have ever supplied rigging for has insisted on having this on file from the load in onwards. If there is ever a problem god forbid) then all parties are covered.

 

that aside... the last venue I was rigging manager for we outsourced the inspection to a third party. In addition the venues insurance company sent along an inspector to look at the hoist chain and other rigging tackle. He also confirmed the 3rd parties hoist inspections.

 

If you are looking for a reliable and thorough person to talk to about servicing and inspecting your hoists then I can recommend a couple of people if you want to drop me a message.

 

TM

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that aside... the last venue I was rigging manager for we outsourced the inspection to a third party. In addition the venues insurance company sent along an inspector to look at the hoist chain and other rigging tackle. He also confirmed the 3rd parties hoist inspections.

 

I worked on that job last year, I can honestly say there's a lot of rigging kit up in that roof and the hardest part of the gig is stopping your brain from going numb. The fact that it was a sunny day was not a great help either!

 

Likewise happy to make recommendations, there are several good companies out there but there's also plenty of people offering to perform the service who don't completely understand what they are looking at. I know of a theatre inspected by a commercial lifting company who didn't think that 2 faulty winch drives, most of the winch lines being very slack, or the winch rope being the wrong size for the winch drum were things that should be mentioned in the inspection report! So it is important IMO to work off recommendations and not simply stick it in google.

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There is no actual requirement to get a certificate which you can send out with the hoist.

 

I thought there was?

 

LOLER:

 

 

 

(4) Every employer shall ensure that no lifting equipment—

(a) leaves his undertaking; or

(b) if obtained from the undertaking of another person, is used in his undertaking, unless it is accompanied by physical evidence that the last thorough examination required to be carried out under this regulation has been carried out.

Having said that, although some firms put the certificate in a pouch in the motor flightcase, others use online storage of their safety certificates.

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There is no actual requirement to get a certificate which you can send out with the hoist.

 

I thought there was?

 

LOLER:

 

 

 

(4) Every employer shall ensure that no lifting equipment—

(a) leaves his undertaking; or

(b) if obtained from the undertaking of another person, is used in his undertaking, unless it is accompanied by physical evidence that the last thorough examination required to be carried out under this regulation has been carried out.

 

Having said that, although some firms put the certificate in a pouch in the motor flightcase, others use online storage of their safety certificates.

 

Yes there needs to be physical evidence that an examination has taken place. That can be a sticker on the body of the hoist, or it can be a paper certificate, or it can just be a larger certificate covering all items in the inspection that displays the serial number of the hoist and the date of the examination and the details of the examiner and the outcome of the inspection. But there is no need for an actual certificate per se to accompany the equipment directly. "Physical Evidence" is a fairly open ended term.

 

This is not to say that the physical evidence accompanying the hoist is all the evidence you need; but simply that you don't need the full works of record keeping when simply sending out the hoist on a hire.

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Thanks for the info.

I may not purchase for the time being, may aswell let someone else worry about all the paperwork and the servicing.

 

The funny thing was that a safety officer turned up on site and asked to see the cert before anything was hung. Couldn't find it at the time, he disappeared and never came back.

I think he was just trying to show his authority in front of the client.

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It's not unreasonable for a venue custodian to ask for proof that lifting equipment that will be (albeit temporarily) installed in the venue in their custody meets LOLER regulations. People often act like they're being difficult, but it's not an unreasonable request. Many touring venues have the same situation, but such things are supplied in advance to save time on site. A rigging incident will cause the venue as much hassle as the installer of the equipment, so it's perfectly OK for them to do whatever they feel necessary to make themselves happy that the equipment you are using meets all current regulation.
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It's not unreasonable for a venue custodian to ask for proof that lifting equipment that will be (albeit temporarily) installed in the venue in their custody meets LOLER regulations. People often act like they're being difficult, but it's not an unreasonable request. Many touring venues have the same situation, but such things are supplied in advance to save time on site. A rigging incident will cause the venue as much hassle as the installer of the equipment, so it's perfectly OK for them to do whatever they feel necessary to make themselves happy that the equipment you are using meets all current regulation.

 

I didn't mind him asking for it all.

He asked for it and as I couldn't find the flightcase at the time, I said I would have it for him in 20 minutes. he said fine but nothing can go on the chain till he sees the cert.

But the thing was he never came back and didn't give us a contact name or email to get it to him.

I should have had it to hand all right buy in future it will be sent on in advance.

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Having them to hand can be difficult, I have seen them in a plastic wallet in the motor case but this isn't too common simply because if the motor is going on a truck every day and being tipped, even in the best cut-out motor cases it will get ripped to shreds very quickly and covered in oil.

 

Many companies inspecting kit use stickers. These stickers are not actually certificates as such, but they will shut many H&S idiots up. Usefully though, the stickers will always have either the serial number on or the inspection company's reference to it, so it's quick to call up and ask for the certificate to be supplied. With mine, the stickers have the new style barcodes (the type your phone can scan) on the sticker, photo'ing it with your smartphone takes you straight on the internet to the certificate. Can't argue with that... except unfortunately in the many theatres and venues which are 3G black spots. This will work on any compatible smartphone because those barcodes contain data which when read by the phone include the actual web address. This is why these bar codes don't need to be registered anywhere either as the web address is contained in the bar code so that barcode will only ever be useful for your website and could not be assigned to something else like a traditional EAN.

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Having them to hand can be difficult, I have seen them in a plastic wallet in the motor case but this isn't too common simply because if the motor is going on a truck every day and being tipped, even in the best cut-out motor cases it will get ripped to shreds very quickly and covered in oil.

 

Many companies inspecting kit use stickers. These stickers are not actually certificates as such, but they will shut many H&S idiots up. Usefully though, the stickers will always have either the serial number on or the inspection company's reference to it, so it's quick to call up and ask for the certificate to be supplied. With mine, the stickers have the new style barcodes (the type your phone can scan) on the sticker, photo'ing it with your smartphone takes you straight on the internet to the certificate. Can't argue with that... except unfortunately in the many theatres and venues which are 3G black spots. This will work on any compatible smartphone because those barcodes contain data which when read by the phone include the actual web address. This is why these bar codes don't need to be registered anywhere either as the web address is contained in the bar code so that barcode will only ever be useful for your website and could not be assigned to something else like a traditional EAN.

 

Nice idea, looks expensive. Will keep it in mind though if I go down that route

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Nice idea, looks expensive. Will keep it in mind though if I go down that route

It shouldn't cost anything and it's probably the way of the future.

This QR code;

http://www.hi-fli.co.uk/images/chart.png

 

was generated on-line at:

http://www.http://createqrcode.appspot.com

 

To create it, I typed in http://www.hi-fli.co.uk/blank.pdf which is just a dummy page on our website but which would be a page with a specific chain hoist's information. Then, you print out the generated QR code (above) and stick it on the hoist. Admittedly, technology hasn't yet got a way of stopping the sticker from getting unstuck and lost.

 

 

I've just found this site for creating QR codes - which looks like much more fun : http://www.qrstuff.com/

 

BTW Can we all sign a pact never to mention 'test' in the same sentence as 'LOLER' ? ( Nowhere does LOLER require oir mention the word).

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It does however require inspection by a competent person, which I assume is what people are referring to

 

 

Huh? This topic has never questioned that!

 

 

 

 

As for QR codes, they are free because basically the 'image' simply gives the smartphone a command. It tells it to go onto it's internet browser and enter a web address. So as long as you have a device that can create the bar code, it will always be free; unlike an EAN barcode which does need to be registered.

 

In terms of stickers, that can however be expensive since you need one sticker design per item. Hence if you want to go down that route you will really want to find a system where you can print your own.

 

On a separate note, most hoist manufacturers offer an option to install the hoist with an RFID chip which can also be used to trace a hoist and dig up it's records. Not quite as accessible on site, but still very useful. I've seen it on Loadguard, Loadstar and Prolyft bodies but I'm sure others offer it. Rud also offer it on their chains, and their eyebolts, such as the pinks which you'll commonly see in venues roofs. So expect to see RFID gaining acceptance in this market.

 

BTW Can we all sign a pact never to mention 'test' in the same sentence as 'LOLER' ? ( Nowhere does LOLER require oir mention the word).

 

I've been campaigning for this for ages!

 

A) Because the word is "examination"; and

B) Because a "LOLER Test" or even a "LOLER Examination" does not exist in it's own right. An examination is something which has to be done under LOLER; but there is no set criteria examination in the same way as a PAT test or an MOT.

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QR encoding and decoding software is cheaply (and even free) available if there's a need to develop systems in house to generate lots of QR codes.

 

Rather handily, they are resilient enough that you can "damage" them by putting a logo or other image in the middle and they still decode correctly.

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