Monthly Archives: October 2017

Fall Protection: Aerial & Scissor Lifts

Fall protection: what you should know about aerial and scissor lifts

OSHA and ANSI’s safety standards for scissor lift fall protection have changed over the years, and you might be wondering what that means for you. Being thrown from a boom lift seems much more likely, so scissor lifts can seem safer by comparison. However, complacency is a big danger on construction sites and in warehouses. 

Conforming to OSHA’s standards may be a learning curve for your team, but the safety of your team depends on following these standards. OSHA recommends wearing a scissor lift harness in the following situations: 

  • When the platform is more than six feet above the ground and not protected by an adequate guardrail system.
  • When a scissor lift harness is required by a company’s, employer’s, or local government’s safety policies. 
  • When recommended by the scissor lift manufacturer. 
  • When a worker steps outside of the platform while it’s elevated. 

Even when it’s not required, using a safety harness adds an extra measure of safety and is worth any associated hassle. 

Interested in renting or purchasing a scissor lift? Need maintenance for your scissor lift or scissor lift operator training? Contact us!

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in October 2017. We updated it for freshness, accuracy, and comprehensiveness in February 2023.

Meals That Matter and Hurricane Harvey Relief

 

Tyson Foods and the Meals That Matter Team recently completed a deployment to the Houston area to assist in Hurricane Harvey relief. We were proud to have had a small role in this relief. Hugg & Hall’s Utility Services Division’s generator was sent to Texas, not originally knowing how it could best be used, but later becoming a huge asset to one Downtown Houston church.

The following statement was sent to Hugg & Hall by Pat Bourke, Tyson Foods’ Corporate Social Responsibility Department.

Big shout out to Hugg & Hall for use of the generator! Our actual setup site had shore power, so we didn’t use the generator there, but it came in handy for one church in downtown Houston.

This church was feeding many victims & first responders at ground zero, and Tyson was providing them product, but they could only take 30-40 lbs. at a time. After our second delivery, I asked the youth pastor if the church had any access to cold storage. He said they had a very large walk-in freezer at their main campus, but that entire end of the city was without power. I asked him if he had an electrician on hand—he said he had two.

Later that afternoon, we placed the Hugg & Hall generator at the church—one hour later the walk-in freezer was up and running. Two hours later we were making a significant product delivery.

Hugg & Hall’s generator was a game changer for that church and the victims and first responders in the immediate area they were feeding.

Thanks again for the support!

Thank you, Tyson Foods, for caring about this area and Hugg & Hall is proud to have a continued role in the Meals That Matter Team!

ANSI : What they are changing & Why you need to know

What is ANSI?

The American National Standards Institute, or ANSI for short, is a nonprofit organization that creates and publishes thousands of norms and guidelines that directly impact businesses in nearly every sector of our country. ANSI is expected to update current standards regarding access equipment design in late 2017. In order for North American manufacturers and operators to be in compliance with the new standards they will need to take new safety features into consideration.

 

The ANSI standards control stability, testing and safety requirements to monitor equipment manufacturers to guarantee the buyer receives and uses certified machines. “The new ANSI standard will broadly bring North American machines in line with equipment currently in the European market, reducing global variances,” spoken by Barry Greenaway, product manager, Skyjack.

 

The new ANSI A92 Mobile Elevating Work Platform (MEWP) Design, Safe-use and Training suite of standards, including  A92.22 for safe use and A92.24 for training, will be replacing the current standards A92.5 for boom supported platform and A92.6 for scissor type platform. The new standards issue new requirements such as new wind ratings, stability testing and active load sensing. Also, instead of using “aerial work platform”, it is now “mobile elevating work platform” (MEWP) terminology. So, because of these changes, familiarization and training will be required.

Key Changes

Getting Familiar 

Manufactures have one year to stop productions on machines that meet the old standards from when the new standards are published. Existing machines will still be approved for use and they will not have to be updated to meet the new standards. The new standards have one single document that will cover all responsibility for MEWPs. The A92.20 standard will allow operators to self-familiarize and recognizes online theory training. Supervisors of MEWP operators will also need to become familiar and take training under the new standard.

 

“Education and proper training will be key for rental companies and operators when it comes to successfully adapting to the new ANSI changes,” Greenaway said. “We also recommend rental companies allocate adequate resources to respond to customer inquiries about the new ANSI standards.”