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We all rely to a greater or lesser degree on our kit being fully functional to do our work. Whether this is PAT testing office equipment, PUWER inspections or LOLER examinations, not only is there likely to be a legal imperative, but there are also direct cost, safety, and environmental reasons to inspect equipment to spot potential failures.
As covered in our June 2021 Bulletin PUWER lays out 3 stages of checking machinery:
1. User pre-use visual check: Not normally recorded. The user checks the general condition of the work equipment and that safety features are in place and operable.
2. Periodic User Inspection: Normally a recorded structured inspection. A bit of a deeper look over the equipment. Often conducted weekly. Tilhill provide check books for the most common Forestry and Landscaping machine types.
3. Formal Inspection: A much deeper inspection including items the user would not be competent to do. The inspections are often tied to the servicing and preventative maintenance schedule for a machine and may be carried out by a dealer or in-house mechanic.
The FISA Plant & Equipment Group are working on a new technical guide to plant inspection that will help you plan and carry out your inspections to ensure your plant and machinery remains safe to use.
However, not all failures are easy to spot as experienced last month on a site. An excavator using a flail head was in use when cracks opened up at the base of the boom arm. Examination of these cracks showed that they had begun to form some while ago but hadn’t been spotted during inspections and servicing. On the day of the event the cracks opened further allowing them to be noted. The incident is still being investigated.
The FISA Plant & Equipment Group is also looking at modified machinery in the industry and the impact on the validity of the manufacturers CE marking. Often, modifications introduce such new risks as to go beyond the scope of the original CE mark. Guidance will be produced as to how Supply of Machinery Regulations can be complied with by converters and owners alike.
