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Access Platforms & Safety Handrailing

In recent years a great deal of effort has been made to increase our health & safety awareness and ensure that all personnel have a safe means of access when they are working.  

For a large number of office premises and factories, high level or roof mounted plant maintenance access is often gained by means of scaffolding - either of the traditional or tower type - or even mobile powered access platforms.

But few maintenance and facilities managers appreciate the true cost of these methods in the long run.

For example, taking into account the time to obtain a scaffold from an outside contractor or from within the company's own stores, plus the erection time, disruption at floor-level while the scaffold is in place, and the time to dismantle and return the scaffold, this approach is relatively expensive.

It is estimated that if a scaffold has to be erected on three or more occasions to gain access to plant, it usually would have been cheaper to have had bespoke access platforms constructed and installed.

If suitable platforms, walkways and fixed ladders are in place, no time is needed to assemble the means of access, and the labour requirement is often reduced from two or more down to one.

Moreover, in the case of emergency maintenance following an unplanned stoppage, access can be gained immediately so that downtime is minimised.

In addition, companies that have installed access platforms often find that easier access means that maintenance takes place more frequently, leading to higher quality production with more consistent output.

With the new work at height Regulations, employers should also be aware that access platforms will help them to comply with the latest requirements.

Safety is not compromised when access platforms are used, as guard rails are designed at the outset and permanently fixed in position (according to data from the Health and Safety Executive, around 50 per cent of fatalities involving machinery are associated with maintenance and, in 2001/2002, 68 people died and nearly 4000 suffered a serious injury as a result of a fall from height in the workplace).

Aside from reducing the cost of maintenance and improving safety, custom-designed access platforms can also provide the optimum location from which to operate control panels, carry out routine service & maintenance operations.

Customers are offered a free site survey, after which a quotation is prepared that includes the costs of designing, manufacturing and installing the platforms, ladders, guard rails and associated hardware to the customer's specification.

All designs are completed in accordance with the applicable British and European standards.

CAD (computer-aided design) is used to ensure that the designs are highly accurate, which also helps the installation to be completed as quickly as possible.

The installation can be scheduled to take place at a weekend or during a planned maintenance shutdown so as to avoid disrupting production.