Lifting Equipment Engineers

Association

Part 1 Entry Examination

Course

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 Legislation & Standards

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 The Health And Safety At Work Etc Act 1974

• The Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 makes goal setting requirements
and places duties on everyone at work to ensure health and safety.

• Written in broad terms it supports the aims of all health and safety legislation.
It therefore remains in place as a long stop, bringing all of the other
regulations together under its umbrella.

• Although the Act is extensive we need only consider three of the 85 Sections
this contains and will therefore look at Sections 2, 6 and 7

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 Section 2

Employers’ general duty

“Duty to ensure so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and

welfare at work of all his employees”

1. Safe plant and systems of work

2. Safe use, handling, storage and transportation of articles and substances
3. Information, instruction, training and adequate supervision
4. Safe place of work and a safe means of access and egress
5. Safe working environment and adequate welfare facilities

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 Section 6

Places specific duties on the designers, manufacturers, importers and

suppliers such people must:

1. Ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that articles they design,

constructed, make, import, supply etc. are safe and without risk to health at
all times e.g. when it is being set up, cleaned, used or maintained by
someone at work

2. Carry out or arrange such testing and examination necessary to perform the
duties above

3. Ensure that those supplying the item have adequate information about its
designed and tested use. This includes essential conditions for dismantling
and disposal

4. Act to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that those supplied are

given updated information where it becomes known that the item gives rise to
serious risk to H&S

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 Section 7

Duty of Employees at Work

It shall be the duty of every employee whilst at work:-

• To take reasonable care of their own health and safety and of any other
person who may be affected by their acts or omissions

• To co-operate with their employer so far as is necessary to enable that

employer to meet their requirements with regards to any statutory provisions

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 Regulations

Management of Health and safety at Work regulations 1999

• These regulations modify both Section 2 and Section 7 of the Act.

• Underline the requirements for employers to provide instruction and training.

• They must ensure that their personnel are properly trained to use any
equipment necessary in the course of their work, but the regulations also
place an obligation on employees to undergo such training and follow the
instructions given by their employer.

• Operatives are required to only use equipment for which they are trained and
to use it in the manner and for the purpose for which they have been trained

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 Regulations

Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992

• Regulations refer directly to lifting operations and add to the employers

duties in Section 2 of the Act.

• Require an assessment to be made of any operation where loads are

handled manually, or where manual effort is necessary, with a view to
reducing the number of injuries that result from such operations.

• Require the introduction of lifting appliances where the risks are high or if
the operation can be made safer by their introduction.

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 Legislation

The Machinery Directive

• A European CE Directive concerned with the mechanical and electrical

safety of machines (where the mechanical risk is greater than the electrical
risk, however, if the electrical risk is greater, use the Low Voltage Directive).
The Machinery Directive is largely based on Risk Assessment and use of
EU Standards for critical features such as guards and emergency stops.

• Has been adopted by the European Free Trade Association (EFTA)

countries so it is common in law throughout Greater Europe known as the
European Economic Area (EEA)

• Implemented by the Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations. This

regulation only applies to the manufacturer if he is based in the EEA, or the
initial importer into the EEA if the manufacturer is based outside.

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 Legislation

Section four of the Machinery Directive give the essential safety requirements
to be met in addressing the hazards of a lifting operation.

It requires the responsible person to: -

Issue an EC Declaration of Conformity
Mark the item with the CE mark

There are a few new terms in the directive: -

Lifting Accessories, generally what used to be called lifting tackle or lifting

gear

Lifting Equipment, which means the lifting machine including its supporting
structure, anchorages and fixings.

Coefficient of Utilisation or Working Coefficient, simply means factor of

safety

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 PUWER and LOLER

• PUWER:

Provision and use of work equipment regulations 1998

• PUWER applies to all work equipment

• LOLER:

Lifting operations and lifting equipment regulations 1998

• LOLER applies to lifting equipment in addition to PUWER

• Both apply to all sectors of industry

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 LOLER
Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations

• Regulation 7 requires all lifting equipment to be marked with its SWL and
information that gives the items characteristics, e.g. Grade, angle of use etc.

• Regulation 9 gives the requirements for a thorough examination. It calls for

all lifting equipment to be thoroughly examined before it is used for the first
time. However, if the item is new and unused and the user holds the
ORIGINAL EC Declaration of Conformity and that it is no more than 12
months old, it can enter service immediately.

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 LOLER
Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations

Regulation 10 Refers to the retention of reports and reporting of defects.

• A defect presenting an existing or imminent risk of serious personal injury

found during a thorough examination must be reported to the Health and
Safety Executive (enforcing authority)

• The law does not specify the WLL or SWL of lifting equipment or how this is
to be expressed or marked but that standards may so a sling can be marked
at any included angle within the permitted range.

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 LOLER
Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations

• Maximum fixed periods for thorough examinations and inspection of lifting

equipment as stated in regulation 9 of LOLER are: -

• Lifting accessories
6 months

• Lifting equipment
12 months

• The information to be contained in the report of thorough examination is

given in schedule 1 of LOLER

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 PUWER
Provision and use of Work Equipment Regulations

• These regulations apply to all equipment and must be complied with even
though more specific regulations may also apply

• Contains requirements for maintenance

• Equipment entering work place must comply with relevant directives

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 Codes of Practice

There are various types of Codes of Practice :-

• Approved Codes of Practice (ACoP)

• Recommended CoP

• Trade or Professional Code of Practice

• Technical Publications

• Safety Information sheets

Most modern legislation is published with an approved code of practice eg

LOLER, PUWER etc

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 Standards
BS (British Standards)

• Modern standards are written as safety standards for new products

covering, materials, workmanship, design, test and examination
requirements.
• Some standards take the form of recommended Codes of Practice, covering
the use, maintenance or application of specific products or the conduct of
certain processes.
• They lay down what marking is necessary, where and how this should be
placed, to fully identify the item, its WLL/SWL, grade and ensure traceability
to its certificate.

ISO Standards

• ISO (or International Standards) generally take the form of performance

standards, which are agreed internationally by a majority vote.
• Their use is optional but they are often used as the basis for writing national
standards.

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 Standards
EN (Euro Norm)

• Means that the standard has been adopted as a European standard.

• As an example standards are sometimes IEC standards, EN standards and
country specific standards such as British Standards so you end up with
multiple prefixes such as BS EN 60950. This is a British Standard and is
also a Euro Norm.

CEN/CENELEC (Euronorm) Standards

• Some years ago it was decided that Europe should have its own standards.
CEN and, in the case of electrical equipment CENELEC, were the European
Standards bodies made responsible for obtaining agreement between the
member states and issuing the standards which were known as Euronorms.

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 Harmonised Standards

• A standard that is in support of one or more Directives

• Has been produced by CEN or CENELEC 

• When the reference has been published in the Official Journal of the EC and at least one
national standards body has published it, provides a presumption of conformity with the
EHSRs covered by the standard.

In other words the:-

• Directives would state the legal objectives (EHSRs) to be met.

• Harmonised Standards would identify the technical means to meet these legal objectives.

• Harmonised Standards are one way of meeting the EHSRs and are never intended to be
mandatory, however compliance with them does give a presumption of conformity.

Working to Harmonised Standards is the easiest

way for a manufacturer to demonstrate they are
meeting legal requirements imposed by the Directive.

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 Uniformity of Measurement
(length & weight)

We use the metric system to mark all our lifting equipment in tonnes. This is not
to be confused with tons.

An imperial ton (1 ton) is equal to a metric tonne (1 tonne)

In fact there are 2240 lbs in an imperial ton and 2204 lbs in a metric tonne.

You must however be wary of the American ton (short ton) as it is only 2000 lbs.
These are usually marked in the same way as the imperial ton so the danger is
obvious.

The Scientific Index (SI) unit of mass is the kilogram (kg) 1000kg = 1 tonne =
2204 lbs
We can see as this is a decimal there are 10 divisions each of 100 kg

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 Uniformity of Measurement
(length & weight)

• In the imperial system a ton is divided into 20 subdivisions know as a

hundredweight (cwt) and 1 cwt = 50 kg

• To convert this to a decimal we can simply divide the cwt figure by 2 to

arrive at multiples of 100kg (expressed to the nearest whole number)

• For example: -
2 cwt = 0.1t or 100kg therefore 1 ton 2 cwt = 1.1t or 1100kg

• For the conversion of length we use the following: -

1 inch = 25.4 mm
10 feet = 3 metres (actually 9.84 feet)

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 Any Questions ?

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