All posts by mike

19Jan2017

Hydraulic Products: Buy or Hire from SafetyLiftinGear.com

mike products

We sell a terrific range of hydraulic equipment here at SafetyLiftinGear.com, to the point where we can provide a hydraulic product for practically any task you'd care to name. Here's a quick tour of our hydraulic department - most of the products listed below are available both to BUY and to HIRE, meaning that we can provide a solution for long- and short-term requirements alike.

Hydraulic Cylinder Jacks

We stock a variety of hydraulic cylinders to suit all sorts of different situations. Each one is fully tested and inspected before sale, and your cylinder's sturdy body and chrome-plated ram should last you a very long time. The cylinders are ideal for pushing / lifting, although our hollow cylinder jacks can also provide a strong pulling force. We also sell pad jacks and lock nut cylinders for customers with more specific requirements.

Hydraulic Wedge Spreaders

Our hydraulic wedge spreaders are ideal for separating tight joints (as shown in the photograph above). Far safer and smoother than using a hammer or lever!

Hydraulic Pipe Benders

If you're a plumber - or someone else who deals with pipework on a regular basis - then our hydraulic pipe benders may make your life a whole lot easier. The hydraulic action is specifically designed to enable the easy and accurate bending and manipulation of metal pipes.

Bottle Jacks

Our heavy-duty bottle jacks (with hydraulic ram action) are ideal for lifting an array of objects, from vehicles to building foundations.

Hydraulic Nut Splitters

Need to break a large nut that can no longer be turned / unscrewed? A hydraulic nut splitter will make short work of it, using hydraulic pushing power to crack nuts ranging from 8mm to 24mm in size.

Trolley Jacks

These wheeled hydraulic jacks are ideal for use in workshops and garages. Simply manoeuvre the trolley into place and use the handle to engage the lifting action!

These are just SOME of the high-quality hydraulic products we stock here at SafetyLiftinGear.com. Click here to view the full range!

13Jan2017

Wire Rope Lifting Slings to Buy or Hire

mike products

If you're looking for a reliable, high-quality lifting solution, SafetyLiftinGear's wire rope slings are perfect for a huge variety of demanding tasks. Capable of supporting even extremely heavy loads, our galvanised wire rope lifting slings are available to buy and to hire, making them a great choice for short- and long-term requirements alike.

The above photograph shows our wire rope lifting slings being used to construct a brand new railway line connecting Manchester Victoria to Manchester Piccadilly. This is just one of the many high-profile projects in which our lifting slings have been used recently; another example would be the expansion of Manchester City FC's Etihad Stadium in the summer of 2015.

Why use SafetyLiftinGear's wire rope slings?

We at SafetyLiftinGear consider ourselves to be the UK's leading experts on heavy lifting equipment, and we've got four decades of industry experience (plus countless reviews from happy customers) to back that claim up. Here are a few reasons to order your wire rope lifting slings from us:

Each sling is made from galvanised wire rope that's extremely strong and resilient.
Our prices are extremely competitive, as are our hire rates.
We have a wide range of slings to choose from, with weight load limits ranging from 400kg to 5.7 tonnes.
Each wire rope sling comes in a variety of different lengths (usually ranging from 1 to 10 metres).

Still not convinced? Here's some of the feedback we've received from customers who bought or hired wire rope lifting slings from SafetyLiftinGear in the past:

"Delivered well on time and does the job perfectly" - Tom from Scotland

"Excellent value for money, will use again" - Ricky from Stevenage

"I use slings for recovery purposes and it's value for the money, thank you" - Gopan from Harrow

"Great next day service on wire rope slings, delivered direct to site as needed" - Novatec Engineering Ltd in Kent

We can provide a wire rope lifting sling to meet practically any set of requirements - click here to browse our range.

06Jan2017

Equipment Lanyards for Stage Rigging Professionals

mike products

Working as a rigger in the live entertainment industry often means working at height. Whether they're setting up lighting rigs, building stage sets, or dismantling everything after the show has finished, event rigging professionals spend a lot of time far above the ground.

This means that height safety is naturally a very important consideration in this line of work. Riggers routinely rely on safety harnesses and other types of fall prevention equipment while working - after all, a single slip can result in severe injury or even death when you're that high up, so it's important to have these safety measures in place.

But it's not just the workers themselves who are at risk of falling. If you were to drop a tool - such as a spanner or a torch - from the top of a very tall lighting rig, the dropped item could well cause a lot of damage upon reaching the ground (especially if someone happened to be standing in its way).

How to prevent tools from falling

However, just as a rigger will usually wear a harness when working at height, there are products you can buy to protect your tools and equipment from falls as well. Here at SafetyLiftinGear, we stock a wide range of equipment lanyards that can be used to attach all kinds of different tools to your person when working at height.

Most of our equipment lanyards are compatible with a wide range of tools (such as spanners, hammers, screwdrivers, et cetera). However, some of the products in our tool lanyard range are specifically designed for one tool in particular:

Tape Measure Trap (for tape measures)
Power Tool Trap (for drills and other power tools)
Helmet Lanyard (for hardhats / helmets)

Not only do our equipment lanyards make the workplace a safer environment for everyone, they are also very handy - it's very inconvenient when you're working at height and you have to stop and go down to fetch the spanner you just dropped!

Click here to browse our full range of tool lanyards >

04Jan2017

SafetyLiftinGear Harness Kit Spotted on A Big Lego Christmas!

mike products

Happy New Year everyone! We hope you had a restful Christmas break and that you're feeling energised and optimistic for 2017.

If you saw a programme called A Big Lego Christmas on Channel 4 over the holidays, there's a chance you may have spotted our G-Force P10 safety harness kit in use:

This fully adjustable safety harness is great for staying safe when working at height. In the picture above, the P10 is being worn by a worker on a cherry picker as he helps to construct a working Lego replica of London's iconic Tower Bridge. If you saw the TV show, you'll know that the completed model broke the record for the world's largest Lego structure - it stood 42ft high, and consisted of more than 5.8 million bricks!

Our P10 safety harness is comfortable, flexible, and extremely hard-wearing. It comes in three different sizes, and it's ideal for all sorts of elevated working environments. If you buy or hire the full safety harness kit, you'll also get a kernmantle rope lanyard with screw gate karabiner for easy anchoring.

Watch the video below for some more information about the G-Force safety harness, or click here to buy / hire yours.

21Dec2016

Roller Crowbars, Pry Bars, Wrecking Bars & Pinch Bars

mike products

Quite often, the most difficult of transporting a heavy object isn't lifting and moving it - which is easy enough if you've got the right material handling equipment - but getting underneath the object in the first place. It's all well and good having a forklift or a pallet truck, put if the load you're moving don't have much in the way of ground clearance, you'll have to manually load the goods onto the forks yourself. And that can be a pain in more ways than one.

Fortunately, our material handling range contains a straightforward solution to this common problem: roller crowbars!

These wheeled crowbars are easy to manoeuvre around the warehouse, and they can get in underneath loads with even the most minimal ground clearance. Once that's done, you can simply wheel your low-to-the-ground goods to wherever they need to be.

But the roller crowbar isn't the only handy item in this section of our website! We also stock the Roller Pinch Bar (compact and lightweight - also available to hire).

13Dec2016

Collapsible Ladders: Buy Yours Today

mike products

If you need a sturdy ladder that will help you to safely access high-up areas, our Collapsible Telescopic Aluminium Ladder is a perfect choice. This lightweight collapsible ladder is one of the best-selling items in our entire product range, and the glowing reviews we've received from countless happy customers suggest that it's a very high-quality ladder indeed!

Here's just a sample of the feedback we've had:

"Good value, very convenient and easy to handle" - Peter from Ingatestone
"Excellent ladder - ideal for getting into the loft and easy to store" - Steven from the Isle of Man
"Arrived promptly. Worked as expected. Especially like the stops between rungs so you do not catch your fingers when lowering it" - Eric from Wantage

One of the best features of this collapsible ladder is its ability to be easily transported. It is simple to fold down, resulting in it being small enough to store just about anywhere, from the cupboard under the sink to the boot of your car. While the ladder can be safely used by people weighing up to 150kg (that's 23 stone and 8 pounds), the product itself is very lightweight indeed, so you should have no trouble carrying it around.

Watch the video below to see our Collapsible Ladder in use and click the button to order yours today!

Buy Your Collapsible Ladder >

If you have any questions regarding our Telescopic Collapsible Ladder or any of our other products and services, then please do not hesitate to get in touch with a member of the SLG team today!

07Dec2016

Do 'Safe' Construction Sites Exist? A Reflection on the Risks of Heavy Lifting

mike health & safety

Last week, a headline published in the Northen Echo captured our attention, as it was announced that a construction firm had been ordered to pay £45,000, as a result of an on-site injury. Initially, this struck us as the same neglectful safety story that we've grown used to reading about, whereby a firm or supervisor is found to have been using unsafe working practices, or unsuitable equipment, and is punished accordingly. This story, however, was distinctly different from previous cases that we have examined, as it lacked the obvious signs of neglect often present in cases such as these. As a result, this got us thinking about the way in which we discuss health and safety in construction, and how, at times, we may be guilty of forgetting the grey areas that surround workplace safety measures.

In the case mentioned, project manager Paul Powton was injured whilst working on a spa expansion for Walter Thompson Ltd, a family-run firm of contractors. Whilst laying two concrete slabs, Mr Powton was injured as the crow bar he was using to lever the slabs into place flew up and hit him in the face, after the top slab fell from the chain block being used to lift it. On inspection, it was found that this incident occurred due to poor planning, time pressure, and a lack of proper risk assessment procedures, with blame falling primarily on the firm, but also on Mr Powton himself.

Just two week prior to the incident, the site had passed its monthly health and safety audit, and during proceedings the company was praised for their 'exemplary' health and safety record. In addition, this was also the company's first prosecution in almost a 100 years of working in the industry. This illustrates the true scale of health and safety risks in the construction industry, by showing that heavy lifting incidents can easily occur, even in the most safety-conscious workplaces. Health and safety cannot be maintained on a monthly or even weekly basis, but must be properly assessed and executed as part of daily working practices.

In order to avoid these incidents, companies and employees should:

Plan ahead with plenty of time, to properly asses each element of the job at hand.
Use the correct lifting and handling equipment, which has been safety checked and approved.
Double check the equipment, and run through safety measures before going ahead with the work.
Clearly communicate health and safety procedures throughout the work force, for a unified approach to safety.
If incidents do occur, the situation should be properly scrutinised in order to ensure that a repeat in never allowed to occur.

For more health and safety news and advice, click here!

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