Running With Scissors: Essential Safety Equipment For Operating Your New Scissor Lift

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Scissor lifts are wonderfully useful and versatile pieces of equipment, but using one without the proper safety equipment and knowhow can be a hazardous endeavour. As such, you and/or the workers who are operating your lift should be equipped with all the necessary safety equipment, whether you have hired a lift for a single job or purchased one as a permanent addition to your fleet of mobile lifts.

To that end, scissor lit retailers and lift hire depots offer a wide range of safety equipment alongside their lifts. Here are some of the most essential piece of safety equipment that all scissor lift operators should use routinely:

Safety harnesses

Safety harnesses are essential wear for any worker or operator working at heights, and they are just as important for scissor lit operators. Even scissor lifts equipped with guardrails on all four sides are not entirely fall-proof, and load-carrying lifts can pose a particularly dangerous fall hazard, due to the gaps let in the guardrails as loads are taken off the platform.

To function effectively, safety harnesses must be attached to an energy-absorbing lanyard, which is anchored to a safe, stable position. Both these lanyards and harnesses they are attached to must be inspected regularly to check on their condition. They should also be rated to safety suspend the weight of the worker using them -- this weight includes any heavy equipment or tools the worker may be carrying at the time of the fall, so choosing harnesses with high maximum loads is always a sound investment.

Killswitch lanyards

These simple devices are connected directly to the power supply of your scissor lift, and consist of a killswitch attached to a lanyard looped around an operator's wrist or neck. If an operator should fall from the lifting platform or get into other difficulties while operating the lift, the lanyard pulls the killswitch from the lift's control panel, immediately cutting all power to the lift.

These devices are essential to prevent operators losing control of a powered lift, a dangerous scenario to say the least. Workers operating the lift from the lifting platform's controls should each be fitted with an individual lanyard. Lanyards are also essential for ground-level operators, especially if they are controlling a lift while workers are aboard.

Load arrestors

These devices are especially useful for scissor lifts used to lift heavy loads, such as concrete slabs and large window panes. Once attached to a suitably stable structure, such as the side of a building or a structural concrete pillar, these arrestors are attached to the heavy load in question -- if the load is dropped or knocked off the scissor lift, the arrestor uses friction-based resistance to slow the load's descent.

As you can imagine, these devices are vital for protecting workers working in close proximity to your scissor lift, and are just as vital for making sure your lift can't be tipped over by heavy, suddenly unbalanced loads. They can also, however, be a boon or your finances -- expensive equipment and materials attached to a fall arrestor are much less likely to suffer catastrophic damage when they hit the ground.

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17 April 2017

Investing in New Industrial Equipment

Hello, my name is Richard and I own a medium-sized industrial unit in Sydney, Australia. I only started the business a few months ago, so I am not a professional in any sense of the word. Before I could set the business going, I had to kit out the new factory with equipment. I didn't have a clue where to source the best equipment or how to get the best deal. Thankfully, my brother-in-law is worked in manufacturing for many years. He came along with me when we viewed the equipment and got me the very best stuff. I decided to start this blog to help others who are just starting out.