Whether you run a retail unit, a showroom, or a busy warehouse, you know only too well how important having a goods lift is. Goods lifts can be crucial to the smooth running of such businesses, allowing personnel, inventory and equipment to be moved seamlessly between floors. Whether you’re considering getting a goods lift installed, or you’ve had yours for a long while, ensuring safety and security are robust in such lifts is vital for your business. In this post, we explain why.
Safety and Security – The Cornerstones of Any Operation
There are a variety of reasons that safety and security are front and centre in most people’s minds when they are looking at installing a good lift. These include:
- Protection for workers – Not only do goods lifts save on manual handling for employees, reducing the risk of manual handling accidents, they also allow for safe movement around a warehouse or other types of premises without having to travel up and down stairs. A secure, well maintained lift will be vital for those employees who need to move goods between floors and also for those who find stairs a challenge due to disability, for example.
- Reduction of damage – The more stable and movement between floors is, the less likely it is to damage what you’re moving. A well-maintained secure lift will be less likely to damage your stock.
- Efficiency- A safe and well-maintained goods lift will alleviate any downtime you’ll have due to breakdowns due to lack of servicing or unauthorised access attempts. This can help to ensure you optimise productivity and minimise wasted time.
- Compliance – Being compliant with health and safety regulations as well as other laws is vital for any business. There are specific safety standards for goods lifts, and failure to maintain your lift to these standards could lead to big problems for a business.
What safety features should goods lifts have?
There are certain safety features that should be present in goods lifts. These include:
- Robust design and construction – The goods lift you have must be able to move the loads you need to move between floors. They should also be regularly checked, particularly if you start to deal with different loads, to make sure they are still able to cope with the stress and weight.
- Interlocks – A safety interlock will prevent the lift from moving if the doors are open or if there are any obstructions. This not only helps protect the load, but the people operating the lift, the lift itself, and the surrounding environment.
- Emergency stop control – This should be easily accessible, allowing you to immediately shut down the lift in emergencies or where the lift malfunctions.
- Protection from overloading- It is always tempting to move things in fewer loads, and put as much in a lift as possible. If you have overload protection, this will prevent the lift from operating if the weight capacity is exceeded. This can help to prevent accidents and also protect your lift.
- Maintenance – Planned maintenance and inspections should be undertaken on a regular basis. These are crucial when it comes to identifying potential issues and rectifying them before they get worse.
What security features should goods lifts have?
Whether you store and move high value goods or temperature sensitive items, or you simply want to control who can access different parts of your business premises, there are a variety of security features that could be implemented into your goods lift.
Access control panels – With an access control panel you can limit the access to certain areas of your building to authorised personnel only. Access control methods could include key cards, biometric authentication or key codes.
CCTV – Having cameras inside and around the lift area can help not only deter those who should not be accessing the area, but they can also serve as evidence if an incident occurs.
Alarms – If unauthorised access or forced entry occurs, alarms can help alert personnel to any incident.
Whether you are installing a good lift for the first time or you are looking at upgrading, considering the safety and security features will ensure that your lift provides all the benefits we mentioned without risking harm to your employees, your lift or your business.
