The Problem of Electrocution Accurate and
consistent research shows that at least 100 crane power line
contacts occur per year. Government and independent data
agree that such crane power line contacts are consistently
the largest single cause of crane fatalities over the last
25 years although the Federal regulations expressly
prohibits a crane from contacting power lines. Operator
training can modify the rate of fatalities but cannot stop
the underlying causes of crane power line contacts. The
cause is simply the human's inability to distinguish a power
line as a visually impaired object. Crane operators do not
intentionally kill their co workers or disobey Federal
regulations.
When contact is made with power lines the 'fortunate'
people are killed outright, however normally they die a slow
and painful death. In 50% of incidents riggers have survived
with horrendous injuries with loss of limbs, severe burns,
internal tissue damage, and paralysis.
These deaths and injuries are sustained by the riggers, who
are in contact with the load being lifted when part of the
crane contacts an overhead power line and the current passes
through the rigger to ground. The roadside distribution,
line to line, voltage is typically less than 33,000 volts.
This results in a line to ground voltage of 24,000 volts to
which the rigger would be exposed.
The crane driver positioned in a cab is safe from
electrocution as the cab acts as a "Faraday cage"
and the voltage flows around the cab to ground. If the crane
driver leaves his cab and exits the crane he puts himself in
the same danger as the oiler. The oiler who may be leaning
on the crane is totally unprotected and usually killed. At
present these account for 15% of crane power line contact
fatalities and unfortunately there is no solution at present
to save these workers - however 85% can be saved using our
Load Insulator®.
Load Insulator® was launched in 1997 and subsequently
considered by the legal profession and International Experts
as being able to prevent the damaging effects of a crane
power line contact to a rigger. The Load Insulator® is a
life saver having no less than seven patents, several design
awards and accredited in 2000 as a "Millennium Product".
It was designed and developed over five years to be a high
performance insulating component. This component has the
engineering strength to perform in the most demanding of
conditions. Unlike any other insulating links the Load
Insulator® contains a "Black Box" monitoring
system that performs three principal tasks:
- To self-test the integrity of both internal
insulation and external tracking every day at 5.00 am
EST.
- To record date and time of high voltage contact and
self-test failure.
- To emit audible warnings if the unit is faulty or
requires to be returned for inspection or for annual
re-certification.
Each unit must be returned on an annual basis to be
re-tested and certified. During this process the "black
box" recorder is downloaded and the data made available
to the owner of the unit. This data will include the time
and date of any power line strike. There is normally a
charge to the customer for this annual re-certification.
Our products are manufactured in modern facilities by
highly experienced personnel to the international quality
assurance standard ISO 9000. Each product is built to an
International Manufacturer's Standard CPLSO 14 ensuring each
and every unit will provide total satisfaction and
performance. Each unit is warranted for five years against
failure due to fault of manufacture or design.
These are safety devices that will save lives and
potentially save money for the responsible crane operator.
Legal precedents, and subsequent insurance company reaction,
will undoubtedly penalize those who choose not to fit the
product.
No crane should operate close to power lines without the
protection of the Load Insulator®, protect your people,
protect your business with sound engineering. |
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