Aerial Lifts

Aerial hoists can accommodate numerous tasks involving high and tricky reaching spaces. Usually utilized to execute daily maintenance in buildings with elevated ceilings, trim tree branches, hoist burdensome shelving units or patch up phone lines. A ladder could also be used for some of the aforementioned jobs, although aerial lifts provide more safety and strength when correctly used.

There are many designs of aerial lift trucks existing on the market depending on what the task needed involves. Painters sometimes use scissor aerial jacks for instance, which are grouped as mobile scaffolding, useful in painting trim and reaching the 2nd story and above on buildings. The scissor aerial lifts use criss-cross braces to stretch out and enlarge upwards. There is a platform attached to the top of the braces that rises simultaneously as the criss-cross braces raise.

Cherry pickers and bucket trucks are a further type of the aerial hoist. Normally, they contain a bucket at the end of an extended arm and as the arm unfolds, the attached bucket lift rises. Forklifts utilize a pronged arm that rises upwards as the lever is moved. Boom lifts have a hydraulic arm that extends outward and lifts the platform. All of these aerial hoists require special training to operate.

Training programs offered through Occupational Safety & Health Association, acknowledged also as OSHA, cover safety procedures, machine operation, maintenance and inspection and device load capacities. Successful completion of these training courses earns a special certified certificate. Only properly qualified individuals who have OSHA operating licenses should operate aerial lift trucks. The Occupational Safety & Health Organization has formed guidelines to uphold safety and prevent injury while utilizing aerial platform lifts. Common sense rules such as not utilizing this apparatus to give rides and making sure all tires on aerial lifts are braced so as to prevent machine tipping are mentioned within the rules.

Unfortunately, data expose that greater than 20 aerial lift operators pass away each year while operating and just about ten percent of those are commercial painters. The bulk of these mishaps were brought on by improper tie bracing, hence several of these may well have been prevented. Operators should make certain that all wheels are locked and braces as a critical security precaution to prevent the machine from toppling over.

Additional suggestions include marking the surrounding area of the device in an obvious manner to protect passers-by and to guarantee they do not approach too close to the operating machine. It is imperative to ensure that there are also 10 feet of clearance between any utility cables and the aerial lift. Operators of this apparatus are also highly recommended to always have on the proper safety harness when up in the air.

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