Device for safe lifting: New device for compliance with working at height regulations

In 2003/4 falls from height accounted for 67 fatal accidents at work and nearly 4000 major injuries. They remain the single biggest cause of workplace deaths and one of the main causes of major injury.

There is a simple hierarchy for managing and selecting equipment for work at height. Firstly, you must avoid work at height where possible. Installing windows above ground floor level proves difficult, unless the complete operation can be undertaken from within the building without ever having to reach outside.

Where you can't avoid working at height, those responsible - the duty holders - must ensure the use of work equipment or other measures to prevent falls. Furthermore, where they cannot eliminate the risk of a fall, they should insist on the use of equipment or other measures to minimise the distance and consequences of a fall.

Add to the issues raised by the Work at Height regulations, the Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992 which dictate how, safely and minimising the risk of injury, heavy components should be manually handled, and good solutions become ever more vital.

So how do window frames, glazed or unglazed, safely reach their first or other upper floor destinations? Of course there are routes other than the unwary fitter lugging them up a precariously placed ladder.

It is here that a new device - a genuinely portable lifting device designed specifically for window frames - provides an ingenious solution, both improving installation efficiency and allowing compliance with the new regulations.

The Harnser, which takes its name from the East Anglian local word for the grey heron, a member of the crane family, is disarmingly simple in its concept. Weighing only 12kgs, it is easily portable, about the size of a small golf bag, and therefore fits neatly into the fitter's van. It fixes into position within the window reveal and its boom lifting arm pivots out, providing ample clearance for the window which is lifted using a manually operated winch. Fully glazed windows up to 100kgs can be easily raised and brought gently into place for fitting.

Now, exclusively via Eazi Lift, window installers can opt to buy the Harnser outright complete with a six-monthly servicing contract, with no labour charges for the first 12 months.

According to Mike Mortell, sales director of Eazi Lift, the Harnser, with contract hire or purchase options, has the potential to revolutionise the way people think about safe lifting in the window industry. ‘Anyone who ignores its potential risks falling foul of regulations on safe working practices, and could be missing out on what is undoubtedly a great opportunity to improve productivity on site.'