The lifter needed to be stable enough to lift 3.2m wide rolls from customers’ racking and be capable of moving backwards, forwards and sideways into the 1m gap behind the machine. The legs also had to be low enough to go under the machine and the lifter had to be light enough so all the staff could use it. 

If this had not been achievable, C3 would have had the expense of relocating the printing machine, which would have meant increased down time and lost revenue. The layout of the printing room itself may have had to have been altered, while the risk of injury to the operatives from heavy lifting was ever-present. 

After completing a site analysis, Lift Safe worked closely with C3 to supply a bespoke, easy-to-use 125kg battery-operated lifter to lift the rolls into the digital printing machine, without the working environment being affected. 

“The machine is located in a very tight space in a very awkward area,” C3 branch manager Margaret Lavery, explained: “We couldn’t get any of the lifters that can be bought online into the space, and it was causing a lot of problems for the lads, who had to lift extremely heavy reels over the back of the machine to load them. Lift Safe built a machine specifically to do the job we wanted, to prevent injury to our employees.”

Lift Safe’s bespoke machine is able to swivel, as C3 needed it to go round a corner and drop down to the correct height so that the reels could be released on the back. The reels had to go under the bottom of the machine, so the machine needed to be low-lying and also able to be lifted up and down.

“It works just fine,” said Margaret. “The operatives just put the material on, everything is done remotely and no-one has to lift any more. Health and safety at the company has improved – manual handling risks are now nonexistent.”

Visitors to Health & Safety North (Bolton Arena, 7th and 8th October) will find Lift Safe on Stand E30.