Corus of approval
August 1st 2005

Current Health & Safety legislation dictates that harnesses may no longer be attached to handrails during crane maintenance. Granada Material Handling recently installed purpose-built safety lines for Corus Process Engineering

International metal giant, the Corus Group has appointed Granada Material Handling to install purpose-built safetylines at its Process Engineering site in Workington, in order to conform to new Health and Safety legislation.

At the Workington site, Corus Process Engineering (CPE) undertakes general heavy engineering work for the steel and nuclear industry, producing and servicing continuous casting machines and making nuclear waste flasks, shield doors and gamma gates.

There are 25 cranes on-site in total, ranging from 10 to 130 tonnes in capacity.

These cranes are used to move both components and finished products around the site.

Commenting on the various problems involved in the upkeep of this fleet, CPE contact and services manager, Alan Woodend, said: “Health and Safety law demands that cranes are kept in good repair. Maintenance fitters and electricians need to have access to the cranes on a regular basis, and of course, maintainers must be secured safely in harnesses during those maintenance periods.” In the past, CPE would attach these harnesses to crane handrails but recent Health and Safety legislation made this unacceptable in practice, and, as a result, the company was compelled to install purpose-built safety lines on site.

The Solution Following an exhaustive selection process, Granada was chosen to fulfil the safety line requirements. Granada fitted CPE with 31 of their Travsafe Horizontal Lifeline Systems, which allow complete freedom of movement for working at height, whilst ensuring safety for the maintenance workers, traversing horizontally over any given distance. Travsafe is virtually unique in terms of the flexibility it allows, and yet there is less deflection in the event of a fall than a traditional single cable system. The Travsafe line conforms to BS EN 795 and is designed to meet the requirements of CDM regulations and other safety regulations such as HSG33.

“The Travsafe lines are used during all routine maintenance operations, and are proving invaluable in guaranteeing the safety of CPE engineers as they move about at altitude, carrying out their jobs in the knowledge that should they fall, they will always be perfectly safe,” says Woodend.

“The engineers found Travsafe very simple to use, attaching the connector of their harness to a traveller, which runs smoothly along the system and around angles and corners, meaning that whatever task is required of them, they may perform it with confidence.” Following its success in installing the Travsafe lines, Granada has also been awarded the maintenance contract, and will continue to check the lines on a sixmonthly basis.

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