Comment: Hello from me08 August 2023

Thanks to David Young, my predecessor in this role, for steering the BES over the last few years into the great position we find ourselves today. I am excited to have the opportunity to continue his work, and hopefully grow the sector in both numbers and momentum. I have 30 years’ experience in the inspection industry, following formative years serving in the Royal Navy and also working in the automotive and white goods industries. I joined Plant Safety Ltd (now Bureau Veritas) in 1993 as an electrical engineer surveyor, later moving to Zurich Engineering where I was made chief engineer in 2017.

Turning away from me to the job at hand, may I invite discussion around the difficulties of determining what an excavator or material handler is bound to have fitted if considered under LOLER and/or PUWER? This appears to be a minefield for an engineer surveyor completing an examination. With no harmonized build standard for material handlers until 1 June 2022, manufacturers were claiming compliance with the Machinery Directive by interpreting and addressing the essential health and safety requirements directly, while some adopted elements of the harmonized EN 474 standards for earthmovers. (Since then, material handlers have been included in EN 474 and designated under the excavator umbrella).

Still, excavators and material handlers are not the same. Excavators dig and move loose material. Material handlers pick up, carry, and sling loads. However, due to their versatility, excavators have also been adapted to lift too.

Is primary function still the determining factor between LOLER and PUWER? What are the issues surrounding load limiters, rated capacity indicators (RCI’s) and stability warning devices when lifting loads? How does a height-adjustable cab affect matters?

Every inspection company will have answers to these and other issues, but I wonder: are we all joined up and doing the same thing as an industry?

Operations Engineer

Related Companies
BES
Plant Safety Ltd

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