25.06.2009

Scissor incident

A 26 metre heavy duty scissor lift was involved in a small fire in the UK today after it experienced some form of structural failure that bent or broke the back of the chassis, no one was hurt.
Please register to see all images

The creased chassis rail

The lift a 26 metre Liftlux was working at Media City in Manchester, at a height of around seven to eight metres or so when, the operators reportedly heard a loud ‘crack’.

They started to lower the lift in order to check what had happened and as it descended the platform dropped a short distance and suffered a serious structural failure which also ruptured a hydraulic line or fitting.
Please register to see all images

The bent chassis

A small amount of oil landed on a hot surface and caught fire, an extinguisher was used to quickly put the fire out and no one was injured in the incident.

The lift a pre 2004 – Pre JLG unit, is owned by Kimberly Access and was re-rented through AFI. Kimberly which is co-operating fully with the Health & Safety Executive.

Vertikal Comment

Dramatic structural failures such as this are relatively rare, they are usually linked to a material or welding flaw, or less often to a design error, or can be caused by serial overloading over an extended period, which leads to premature metal fatigue.

In this case it is not possible at this stage to say anything definitive. The failure might have been in the main lift cylinder or a critical weld in the structure or something totally unrelated?

Ordinarily we would not report on such an incident at this stage, but photographs of the unit have been widely circulated and the story was very quickly being distorted as it was passed from mouth to mouth..

The facts are:

- No one was hurt.

- The incident appears to have been dealt with in a highly professional manner and a full inspection was launched immediately.

- Everyone concerned is co-operating fully with the HSE to discover the cause.

If you own a similar model you might anticipate some reaction from contractors insisting that inspections are carried out on units on their site and thus be wise to check with the manufacturer to see what it knows.