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Due to the broad range of fall and confined space hazards involved, the first tasks of any elevator installation should be a thorough review of your confined space regulations and hoisting and personal protective equipment.
Usually, the bedrock of your equipment will be a reliable portable hoist, carefully matched for the weights and installation procedures involved. For crews, only the most lightweight and effective fall protection safety harness will give them confidence that their safety is the main priority. To help your efforts, we’ll take this time to outline these necessary items so your team can minimize risk and safely complete elevator installation projects.
Adaptable Hoisting Solutions
At almost every stage of the process, installation crews require the most reliable method for raising enormous metal components and heavy equipment, often at towering heights. Most installations revolve around the speed at which teams can safely move heavy, pre-assembled components across a huge amount of vertical distance.
From a regulatory standpoint, hoisting at any height immediately invokes numerous standards, such as 1926.552 and 1926.554. For elevator shafts specifically, hoisting must also heed a huge range of confined and fall safety regulations, as well.
Hoisting in Confined Spaces
Today, elevator installation companies often use portable hoist systems to accommodate a broad range of material lifting requirements that would be very difficult or impossible to achieve otherwise. Mobile electric hoists (aka electric rope hoists) ensure safe and easy positioning of moderate- to high-capacity loads at potentially unlimited heights. It's an enormous advantage over other methods, because it accommodates heavy loads in tight quarters, and with greater control.
Portable hoists also make a wide range of installation methods possible. For instance, it can be much easier to install a complete elevator system during ground-up building construction, when there's more space to maneuver. However, engineers often prefer installing and testing fully loaded carriages after the surrounding structure is complete. This achieves greater certainty of the floor's load capacity – but it also invokes many more confined space regulations, often at every point below in the elevator shaft.
Portable motorized hoists give technicians greater control, adaptability, and efficiency under various circumstances. It's in large part due to high power-to-weight ratios and advanced hoist technologies, including:
- Functionality from a vertical, horizontal, or angled position, for oddly shaped anchor points in confined spaces
- Infinite-height/continual hoisting
- Portable and easy set up
- Adjustable upper- and lower-limit stops
- Optional sheaving or direct lift kits to increase load capacity
- Safe high-speed lifting, often up to 50 fpm (15 m/min)
- Increase stopping power with motor-integrated braking
- Constant torque, for consistent, slack-free pulling force
Protecting Staff and Equipment
Eliminating slack is always important, but failure to do so could be ruinous during welding and electrical work, which could burn or shock poorly controlled cables. Even just several broken wire strands is all it takes to invoke OSHA 1926.552(a)(3) and necessitate full wire replacement.
As for the hoist, 1926.552(a)(1) restricts all use to the manufacturer's instructions. If a hoist isn't intended for non-upright mounting, it can't be used that way, even if it seems possible. The more control your portable hoist allows, the easier it also is to heed the cars' and platforms' printed load capacities and recommended operating speeds, in accordance with 1926.552(a)(2).
Reduced Falling Object Hazards
By heeding all compliance requirements and manufacturer instructions, you also dramatically reduce the chances of some of the biggest falling object scenarios. Even one mistake at the wrong time could endanger ground crews, no matter how perfectly they follow the falling object protection measures of 1926.501(c).
In fact, material hoisting operations of any kind can immediately invoke permit-required confined space regulations throughout the entire shaft. Employers must watch for the exact moment any elevated work translates into greater confined space danger, which will likely apply to everyone working nearby and at lower levels.
Always Double-Check Your Regulations
A reliable hoist manufacturer will do everything in its power to ensure its equipment fulfills the broadest possible range of regulatory and technical standards. Meeting your exact compliance requirements, however, is only possible by continually referencing your state, OSHA, or CCOHS regulations for any elevator shaft hazard that arises.
Scaffold-Less Installation
High-capacity pneumatic or electric hoists have improved elevator safety overall by eliminating the need for scaffolding. Instead, modern elevator installation usually applies false cars to move and install car railing, electromechanical devices, and other elevator components. A disk-driven pneumatic hoist and sheave system can raise teams and materials of up to 5,300 lbs (2,024 kg) – or 4,400 lbs (1,995 kg), for electric.
Some hoists even accommodate remote wireless operation; or, crews with a better sense of the hazards directly facing them can maintain pendant control and coordinate with teams above and below. For the safest false car operations, it's important to ensure your hoist meets the following technical and safety standards:
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All applicable CSA and UL technical design standards
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Extremely durable construction
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Constant pully/wire rope grip through spring-loaded pressure rollers
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Compatibility with automatic safety brakes, for backup protection of primary rope failure
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Fail-safe governor designs and accurate tripping speeds, per 1926.552(c)(9)
Be sure your device also accommodates the right number of hoisting ropes. OSHA 1926.552(c)(14)(i) requires two lines for drum-type hoists, and three for traction hoists.
Equally Reliable Personal Protective Equipment
Working from a false car, exposed ledge, or any position 6 ft (1.8 m) above the next lowest level invokes a general duty to have fall protection. Due to the dynamic and fast-moving nature of elevator installations, it's more efficient (and often necessary) to equip each entrant to an elevated confined space with their own fall protection safety harness.
A harness and lanyard system must fulfill several important design functions at once:
- Comfort and support, for distraction-free work and reduced suspension trauma
- Secure and easily accessible lanyard and tool attachment points
- Snag-free, breathable, and lightweight design for unencumbered movement
- Easy adjustment to ensure the perfect fit
- A means of keeping lanyards out of the employee's range of motion
- Reliable, ongoing self-retraction
- Lightning-fast and accurate stopping power
Always remember that your personal fall protection devices will double as confined space safety equipment during most elevator shaft work. Overlooking any of the above design considerations could cause more confined space dangers than the fall protection duties they resolve.
For both personal fall arrest systems and hoisting equipment, only the most forward-thinking manufacturers can help you most effectively minimize the inherent fall and confined space hazards involved in elevator installation.
Protecting Workforces at Every Level
Elevator installations require extensive coordination between workers at various elevations. Whether fastened to a structure above or transporting materials and equipment from below, all teams must frequently coordinate through various confined and elevated areas. Many of which are works in progress with increased risks, which requires workforces to maintain their agility even while firmly secured to their surroundings.
It gives industrial technicians and building owners a shared interest in safe, incident-free builds and reliable problem-solving strategies. Only dependable and adaptable lifting equipment, backed by industry-leading PPE, can all but guarantee a safe and effective workflow throughout the installation.
A global industry leader for over 70 years, Tractel® takes a concerted view into the work and regulatory requirements of each industry we serve, and we're constantly optimizing our portable hoist and fall protection safety harness designs. Use the "contact" form located at the top right, and tell our experienced technicians about your confined space safety equipment and hoisting needs.