20.10.2012

Controller modification warning

Australia’s Elevating Work Platform Association has issued a Guidance Note Technical Bulletin, regarding unauthorised modifications of aerial work platforms by end users.

The note warns that unauthorised equipment alterations are no longer in accordance with safety regulations and follows several incidents in recent months involving unintentional operation of upper control box joystick controllers on scissor lifts, causing end users to modify the manufacturers’ original design, by fitting additional guarding etc….
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A typical unauthorised control box modification

The association says such unauthorised modifications may not fully address the risk and could introduce new hazards.
Phil Newby, executive director of the EWPA said: “While the EWPA, end users and owners are seeking a timely resolution to protection of controls, appropriate solutions may take some time to develop. In the meantime, end users must be aware unauthorised modifications may jeopardise operator lives.

“Anyone who modifies a lift takes on the obligations of a designer and/or manufacturer in accordance with Workplace Health and Safety Regulations.”

“Further, such modification may constitute an alteration to the design and require a resubmission of engineering documentation from the manufacturer as well as formal notification to the respective Workcover Authority as an alteration to Registered Plant Design.”

“The 2011 version of AS1418.10 requires all control devices to be protected against inadvertent activation and if the dead man control is integral with the controller, it must be protected against inadvertent actuation. Some pre 2011 machines may have insufficient guarding. Where unintentional operation is possible owners must not make any changes but should instead seek advice and assistance from manufacturers.”

“In the case of scissor lifts where unintentional operation of upper control box joystick controllers is possible, end users should consider activating the emergency stop button before working from the platform or switching off the engine, when the scissor lift is not in use.”

Vertikal Comment

The unauthorised modification of equipment is not a new issue, and the joystick one has also cropped up in Europe in the past 12 months or so. Most manufacturers will have carried out their own assessments of the risks on older machines and if they have deemed that a risk of injury exists are likely to have issued or be working on a retrofit package, so checking with the producer or dealer should always be the first step.

Machine owners should strongly resist pressure from overzealous contractor safety managers to modify the equipment. If the modification causes an unforeseen incident the contractor is likely to develop a rapid case of deep amnesia, leaving the machine’s owner alone in the firing line.