Composites eliminate manual handling health and safety risks

Public Sector Wed, Jul 13, 2016 11:23 AM

Health and safety in today’s workplace is becoming an ever increasing concern with manual handling accounting for over a third of all workplace injuries.

The majority of these injuries are caused by the handling of loads, whether lifting, lowering, pushing, pulling or carrying ("Manual Handling") The majority of advice given by the HSE and NHS to prevent manual handling injuries relates to safe lifting technique and practices, for example HSE advise people to ‘reduce the amount of stooping’ and ‘avoid lifting from floor level, especially heavy loads’, while the NHS suggests to ‘avoid bending your back when lifting’ and ‘keep the load close to the waist’.

Unfortunately, a number of everyday activities in workplaces don’t allow for these to be put into practice. One that causes many health and safety injuries, is that of removing and replacing traditional heavy metal or concrete access covers inset in the ground, which goes against all the above advice.

One company is fighting to help reduce these dangers with a highly engineered composite solution: Fibrelite first invented the composite access cover to reduce the unnecessary injuries associated with traditional metal access covers on petrol station forecourts back in 1980. The founders Trevor Pardoe and Michael Jennings had first-hand Unsafe lifting technique of heavy metal access cover experience of these in their work in the retail petroleum business.

To solve this problem, they created the world’s first composite access cover as a prototype for Esso UK (Part of Exxon Mobil). Since then, Fibrelite has continued their development of highly engineered glass reinforced plastic (GRP) access covers, maintaining the best strength to weight ratio in the industry, their covers typically weighing in at one third of metal and concrete alternatives.

While this dramatically reduces the risk of manual handling injuries, Fibrelite wanted to find a way to eliminate them altogether. What resulted was an ergonomically designed lifting handle which slots into a keypoint in the top of the cover, allowing users to safely remove and replace the covers, while keeping the load close to the waist and avoiding stooping or bending your back, as advised by both the HSE and NHS.

Due to the light and strong qualities of their covers, even F900 (90 tonne) load rated covers can be safely lifted by two operators, whilst remaining under the advised safe lifting limit for the weight in relation to the position from the body.

Fibrelite is seeing dramatic growth in the number of industries reducing their health and safety risks by using composites, both for new build facilities where they are specified, and existing facilities retrofitting a custom cover to replace the existing.

Featured News

Specification news
New sports centre sets new environmental standard

A new sports and leisure complex by FaluknerBrowns Architects has set a new...

Read More >>

Specification news
Gerflor and Gradus wow council visitors and staff

The London Borough of Sutton Council wanted to breathe new life into a number of...

Read More >>

BUILDING PRODUCT LIBRARY - LATEST BROCHURES

REVO.Prime TSA 325 NT Brochure

REVO.Prime TSA 325 N...
By GEZE UK Ltd

Download Now >>

Natural ventilation strategy for Sunderland SEND school Brochure

Natural ventilation...
By Passivent

Download Now >>

Squash Court Flooring Brochure

Squash Court Floorin...
By Junckers Limited

Download Now >>

Junckers Acoustics Floor System Brochure

Junckers Acoustics F...
By Junckers Limited

Download Now >>

BUILDING PRODUCT DIRECTORY - LATEST PRODUCTS

Ei1025 Environmental Sensor
Ei1025 Environmental Sensor

Discreet and secure, the Ei1025 Environmental Sensor can be placed throughout a property to monitor...

Read More >>

Ei1000G SmartLINK Gateway
Ei1000G SmartLINK Gateway

The Gateway and Cloud portal use Aico’s SmartLINK technology to bring together data from all...

Read More >>

Ei3030 Multi-Sensor Fire and Carbon Monoxide Alarm
Ei3030 Multi-Sensor Fire and Carbon Monoxide Alarm

The Ei3030 is a multi-sensor Fire & Carbon Monoxide (CO) Alarm. Containing our proven and dependable...

Read More >>

CONSTRUCTION VIDEOS - LATEST VIDEOS

Forma aluminium column casings for Winchester College
Forma aluminium column casings for Winchester College

In progressive and dynamic business sectors, such as construction, it’s natural to be forward...

Watch Now >>

Decorative metal bulkheads & column casings for Tesco Extra, Birmingham
Decorative metal bulkheads & column casings for Tesco Extra, Birmingham

Decorative aluminium horizontal bulkheads more than 100 metres long have been supplied and installed...

Watch Now >>

Vecta building linings for the perfect finish
Vecta building linings for the perfect finish

More than 150 sq.m of Vecta aluminium wall lining and a feature bulkhead have been manufactured and...

Watch Now >>