Donati Sollevamenti S.r.l., a leading company in the crane and lifting equipment sector explains the correct procedures to follow to sling, lift and move loads using electric hoists safely.

How can accidents in companies that use electric hoists, whether rope or chain hoists, be avoided? The first answer to this question is to use only certified, correctly installed and inspected equipment subject to regular servicing and maintenance.

If these principles are observed then any accidents at work will be due solely to human error. Indeed, the weak link in this chain of standards, procedures and systems concerning safety at work are the people.

We will describe below some types of the most common accidents when electric hoists are used and that are caused by non-observance of the safety measures.

Some examples of accidents when using electric rope hoists and chain hoists.

1. Lifting limits of the hoists exceeded. The Rossi company has just received a pallet of building material that exceeds the rating capacity of the hoist. The truck has to be unloaded in haste and there’s no time to lighten the pallet. The excess weight does not appear exorbitant and the electric hoist had coped with even heavier loads in the past. The pallet is rigged and lifted. But while being moved off the truck bed, the chain, fairly worn, suddenly breaks. The load crashes to the ground but fortunately no-one is injured
2. Presence of personnel below the electric hoist or in its range of action. The shortest route to the loading and unloading bay from the Bianchi Company's offices passes through the area of manoeuvre of the electric hoist’s trolley.  Employees are used to crossing the area even when a load is being moved. This short-cut saves them a few metres. One day, an office clerk, without personal protection equipment (PPE), hurries out of the office to stop a departing truck. He enters the electric hoist’s area of action right at the moment a piece of machinery is being moved. He is struck on the head and loses consciousness. His prognosis is one month for a full recovery.
3. Incorrect rigging of the load. The Verdi company has to load some reinforcing rods onto a truck. Instead of following the rules and using a two-boom sling, one with a single boom is used. As soon as the rods are lifted they begin to slip. One of the workers intervenes and tries to balance them but he is struck by the load and is literally impaled. He dies a few days later as a result of the injuries.
4. Use of the hoist by untrained personnel. The new apprentice of company Gialli is confident, he knows what he’s doing and has a sense of initiative. There is a pallet to load and, seeing that his co-workers are still on their break, he decides to surprise them by doing the job on his own. He has already used the electric hoist several times and checks that the load does not exceed the weight limits. The load protrudes out of the side of the pallet but he underestimates what he thinks is a mere technicality. He hears his co-workers coming back and, instead of lifting the pallet slowly, he lifts it in a hurry. When the load reaches a height of one metre above the ground, it slides out of the slings and falls to the ground. Luckily also in this case no-one was injured.

What is the common denominator of all these accidents? Human error. Some specific recurrent causes of accidents at work can be identified:

1. The rush to finish the job;
2. The superficiality with which people act;
3. An unwarranted faith in one’s capacities.

The above-stated behaviour degenerates into non-observance of safety rules, including even the most elementary ones.

The basic rules to follow to avoid accidents with electric hoist

1. Know the maximum load capacity of the hoist. In this respect, Italian Legislative Decree 81/2008 sets forth that lifting accessories must be marked to identify their essential characteristics for the purpose of their safe use. The hooks used in lifting and transport operations must indicate the permitted maximum load capacity, engraved or raised in relief and in a clearly legible way.
2. Know the exact weight of the load to be lifted. This information can be found, for example, on the shipping document, the weighing slip or the machine's metal plate. If this information is not known, hanging scales can be used.  If hanging scales are not available, an estimate can be made based on the type of material to lift and its dimensions. This final method requires know-how and expertise and must not be used if the margin of error is high.
3. Never exceed the lifting limits. Observance of this rule depends above all on the correct planning of the loads to be handled and, therefore, on the correct choice of hoist to install. In any case,  a load limiter can be installed to avoid lifting loads that exceed the maximum load capacity of the hoist.
4. The hoist movement zones must be clearly demarcated. To prevent the load colliding with people or, worse still, detaching and falling on them when being moved, the movement areas must be demarcated using both horizontal and vertical signs. European directive 92/58/EEC lays down minimum requirements for the provision of safety and/or health signage at work.
   If hazardous conditions exist, hoists must be fitted with appropriate acoustic and luminous devices and the area of manoeuvre must be illuminated.
5. Draw up appropriate load slinging, hooking and unslinging procedures. Ropes and slings must have CE marking. When slinging a load, the following factors must be taken into consideration:
   • length and angle at the vertex of the ropes, two factors that significantly affect the stress on the hoists. The angle of inclination of the rope must be as acute as possible to reduce stresses;
   • shape of the load  on which the barycentre, and hence the stability during the lifting operation, depends;
   • presence of sharp edges that must be protected by shims or guards to avoid damage to the ropes;
   • use of all of the rigging points. Machinery, concrete products and crates all have specific rigging points.  They must all be used to guarantee the stability of the load even if the weight does not seem excessive.
6. Only use trained personnel. The training of personnel on the use of electric hoists should be entrusted to a specific figure in the company who knows the manufacturer's use and maintenance manual in detail. Training should also follow a specific protocol in which all the manoeuvres to carry out, the various rigging operations and the behaviour to adopt depending on the type of load must recorded.