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Avoid unsafe rigging and lifting practices

Lifting heavy electrical equipment, either components or complete assemblies, is necessary in service centers as well as other industrial settings. Perhaps because most hoisting apparatus in small shops handles loads weighing no more than 1000 kilograms, safety standards governing lifting practices are often ignored, resulting in damage or personal injury.

Essential to lifting safety are:

1) proper condition of the slings- chains, ropes, or woven webs-used to suspend the load;

2) correct attachment of slings to the load;

3) safe hoist operator techniques.

Proper use of slings involves, first, choosing the right type of sling for the job. Some slings are unsuited to sharp edges on loads. Others may be damaged by heat or chemicals present during lifting. To be avoided are improper splices, knots, and defective hooks or other fittings.

Secondly, in the United States, Occupational Safety and Health Administration regulations and hoist industry recommendations call for slings to be inspected for defects prior to each use. More thorough inspection, at least once a year, is also required for alloy steel chain slings. Cuts or tears in woven webs; kinks in wire rope; bent or elongated chain links—all are cause for rejection.

Finally, attaching slings to loads (the process known as "rigging") is also subject to numerous safety rules, such as:

1. When multiple slings are used, equalize the loading on each of them.

2. Avoid sling attachment that could allow the load to tip or spin.

3. Make sure the sling load rating is adequate, with due allowance for the angle by which the sling deviates from vertical.

4. Eyebolts, if used, must be fully threaded into the load, and their rating reduced when the lifting force is not applied parallel to the threaded shank of the bolt.

0nce the load is ready for safe lifting, the operator should raise it a short way, slowly, to check the rigging, keeping hands away from the slings and hooks. Movement should be in only one direction at a time. A lifted load should never be left unattended.

A note to our readers: An article in the September Electrical Apparatus entitled "Avoiding Unsafe Rigging and Lifting Practices" included the wrong summary in French. Here is the correct French summary.

Un article dans Electrical Apparatus de septembre qui s'appellait "Avoiding Unsafe Rigging and Lifting Practices" a inclu le résumé francais incorrect. Voici le correct résumé.

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