Typically, site managers don’t keep track of when their site’s lifting gear was last inspected. To put it bluntly, they don’t really care. If you have a site manager like this, your business is at high risk of falling on the wrong side of LOLER regulations. Adequate inspection schedules would mitigate this risk.
Under the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998 (LOLER), equipment that is used to lift loads must be inspected at specific intervals. Additionally, the equipment that assists lifts, like chains, slings, and shackles, must be inspected more frequently than the equipment they are attached to. There is a reason for this. Degradation in wire rope, chain stretching, hairline cracks on hooks due to fatigue, and brake wear in a hoist are all examples of things that cause lifts to fail when most operators would consider them safe to operate.
Typically your site’s equipment that is used to lift people is located in a harsh environment like a factory or outside, so your site’s equipment should be inspected every 6 months to a year. Depending on the environment, your qualified inspector may recommend even shorter inspection intervals. These regulations rely on the inspector’s judgement and not a set inspection schedule for a reason.
A common slip-up for businesses isn’t due to expensive items like the overhead and jib cranes. These items get special attention because a failure would be obvious and the costs for replacement would be huge. Instead, the small lifting accessories like shackles, hooks, and slings that are stored in a cupboard or van go unchecked for years until they hit their inspection date. Once the shackles are mixed in with certified items, there is no way to tell which one hasn’t been checked.
One way to form a solid plan for managing inspections is to tag the items with a unique identifier and create a log detailing the inspection dates. The log can be referenced anytime instead of relying on a visual inspection. Some of our customers use a colour coding system for shackles and slings in accordance with the year they were last inspected. This way, completing an inspection within the period takes five minutes and will be an overdue inspection indicator.
It’s important to remember that LOLER inspections conclude the inspections of the equipment’s general condition and job suitability under PUWER. A lifting accessory that has passed a thorough examination could still be the wrong one for the lift if its working load limit is unsuitable or if the conditions change from those previously specified in the lift. Compliance and correct specification are two separate questions that need to be answered before anything goes on a hook.
In case you don’t know when the last thorough examination was done on your stock or if you have inherited equipment from a former contract and don’t have complete documentation, from a financial perspective, it is wise to conduct a new thorough examination rather than potentially finding out the examination is overdue during an HSE visit, or, worse, after an incident occurs. Every item supplied includes load certification from day one, which helps starts an inspection record on the right note.