Improving Hand Safety in Material Handling with the use of PSC Hands-Free Safety tools
Hand and finger injuries are among the most common injuries during rigging, especially in industries handling large volumes of materials lifting and movement. This is because riggers often touch, manipulate, and rig the load with their hands.
PSC Hands-Free Safety tools are used to control the load from a distance,
- (1888PressRelease) September 01, 2021 - Hands injury represent over 50% of all injuries in the workplace. Many injuries can be minimised if not eliminated with the use of the safer methods of handling suspended loads and use safer lifting apparatus, work practices and tools. The objective of hands‐free lifting is to eliminate hand and finger injuries by removing them from the energy source – and avoid all caught between, struck‐by and struck‐against incidents. Hands and fingers represent a tool that enables you to do wonderful things with them, and unfortunately there are no spare parts for these if you damage them.
Safety is a mindset, a culture, that stems from the overall corporate culture. Over the last few decades safety and automation onboard rigs have vastly improved and its now very much possible to operate everything onboard a drilling rig from a shore-base. Unlike industries, safety in oilfield follows more stringent regulations and therefore can be a benchmark for industries to follow. Oilfield has introduced several firsts in safety and one of these is the Hands-Free or Hands-off Policy that allows personnel to guide, and manoeuvre loads without taking their hands into situations that can lead to pinch, crush or impact injuries or “caught between’ situations.
There are hundreds of operations on a rig related to material movement. Moving equipment from one location to another is generally included in the day’s pre-tour meetings and toolbox talks. Equipment can either be moved manually or using mechanised equipment. The cargo handling procedure lays down how the cargo needs to be handled and hand placement is also discussed. Company’s adopting the hands- free policies clearly lay this down in their procedures.
Is it really possible to work with a Hands-free policy? Yes, its 100% possible.
Personnel not touching a suspended load (with any part of the body) that is connected to a mechanical lifting device is Hands‐free lifting. That is any load that is being lifted or before the load is properly set down and all potential energy is released.
Let’s look at a typical scenario -
Banksman signals the crane operator to lower the load and stop. A slinger will move in and connect the crane hook to a lifting equipment already secured to the load. At this time, an anti-tangle tagline can be put on the load. Banksman will wait for the slinger to move to a safe area and that’s when he will instruct the crane operator to lift the load and guide same on the direction of travel to the landing area. The Banksman will signal the crane operator to lower the load to a height where the slingers can control the load directly. This is when the PSC taglines and push/pull safety tools can be used rather than having a hands-on policy. The Banksman will instruct the crew to move in and control the load into the final landing place. The crew will use the PSC LoadGuider Hands-Free Safety Tool and PSC LoadGuider Anti-Tangle Tagline to guide the load until the load comes to its final resting place.
Why hands-free lifting?
Hand injuries represent over 50% of all injuries in the workplace. Many injuries can be minimised if not eliminated with the use of the safer methods of handling suspended loads and use safer lifting apparatus, work practices and tools. The objective of hands‐ free lifting is to eliminate hand and finger injuries by removing them from the energy source – and avoid all caught between, struck‐by and struck‐against incidents. Hands and fingers represent a tool that enables you to do wonderful things with them, and unfortunately there are no spare parts for these if you damage them.
Hands-Free or Hands-off Policy is being used by several drilling contractors today. PSC exports its Hands-Free tools to over 20 countries worldwide and has over a dozen oil and gas companies in India using the hands-free tools. (www.pschandsfree.com). These complete range of tools enable positioning the loads without the need to put hands on the load. There are anti-tangle taglines, push-pull poles, pipe snare tools, etc that can perform push, pull, secure, and lift-assist tools that can even lift and carry light equipment. If slogging tools are used, there are PSC Fingersaver tools to avoid holding these wrenches with hands during hammering operations.
The most important tool that money can’t buy from Project Sales Corp is the Tool # 1 – The Correct Mindset. Accepting and letting go the natural reaction to go close and hold the rigging in place until the tension is taken up to make sure the load is properly slung and balanced needs to be changed. Remember the most hazardous part of a lifting operation is lifting off and landing and its important you are as far away from the load as possible. Push pull poles aid in "Hands Free" Guiding, spotting, and landing suspended loads, manoeuvring drill pipe and all types of tubular on pipe racks or on the platform, snagging taglines and sling legs, etc. Push pull poles provide a safety zone to personnel to manoeuvre, and guide suspended loads while avoiding pinch points and crush points. With the uses of these tools’ workers do not place themselves in danger by working in an unsafe proximity to hazardous suspended loads. These are made from hardwood, aluminium or fibreglass with variations with heads made out of rubber, nylon, aluminium, etc.
PSC Hands-Free tools range is meant to guide, and manoeuvre suspended loads until it is landed. These Hands‐off tools include– LoadGuider Anti-Tangle Tagline, PSC Safety Rigger Tagline, PSC SafeGuider High-Viz Anti Tangle, Tagline Retriever Tools (TRT) TRT – 3P Extendable Tagline retriever, SafeGuider Tagline Retriever Tool, PSC LoadGuider Push/Pull Tool, PSC TubularGuider Hands Safety tool, PSC Guide-It Push/Pull Tool.
For more information on our product range, please visit www.pschandsfree.com or send us an email at shivani ( @ ) projectsalescorp dot com
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