By Tom Byrne, technical director, NSL

NSL continually look for ways to raise standards and improve safety in lifting operations. With that in mind, we are now aiming to create a professional level of lifting expert. Hence, we are actively recruiting graduate engineers, but not just ANY graduate engineers! NSL are looking for professional engineers that hopefully have experience in cranes and lifting or at least a healthy and keen interest in lifting operations.

For too long, lifting operations, in ALL industries, have been underestimated in their importance. NSL feel lifting operations haven’t been given the respect they deserve, i.e. the attention of highly qualified personnel to try and reduce the amount of accidents and incidents, especially in the offshore oil and gas industry, once and for all.

Using graduates as the starting point, plus NSL’s intensive in-house training, we intend to produce Professional Technical Experts in lifting operations for placement within major operating companies. These engineers will be prepared to travel worldwide. The engineers will be fully supported by NSL’s technical department and assisted as and when required by NSL’s existing Lifting Technical Authorities (TAs), Lifting Specialist Engineers and Riggers.

Lifting is a very interesting and challenging field of operations but due to the often hazardous nature of the work, it needs to be controlled from the ground up, i.e. by addressing issues such as:

• Ensuring that personnel are trained and deemed competent to the appropriate level.

• Having suitable safe operating procedures in place.

• Ensuring personnel have the correct lifting equipment to do the job safely.

• Ensuring the equipment is stored and looked after properly.

• Making sure lifting equipment is always certified fit for use.

• Ensuring the equipment is used correctly and safely.

• Designing lifting schemes.

• Planning lifting operations.

• Liaising with regulatory bodies such as the HSE.

• Dealing with failure investigations and creating safety alerts.

Its time to take lifting operations seriously!
On that note …

As part of our continual development and improvement of facilities at our training centre in Dyce, we have just completed the installation of a ‘mini derrick’ and dedicated man-riding winch to facilitate practical training in this discipline.

It also increases our scope to provide rescue from height and other general work at height training.

Our thanks go to Thern Lifting Services Limited for providing the state-of-the-art winch, which can only improve safety in manriding operations as we know them in the offshore oil and gas industry. Their new winch, Monitor 75 / 150 is a purpose designed hydraulic personnel winch suitable for the zone 1 operations. It’s dual drum and dual sheave design provide a constant tension safety feature which prevents the rider being injured if he gets snagged on the way up.

It has many other special quality and safety features such as:

• Primarily stainless steel construction

• The option of air or hydraulic motors

• Two independent internal failsafe multidisc brakes

• An integral back-up power supply to facilitate recovery of the rider in the event of power failure

• Load selector facility (set the line-pull according to the weight of the person being lifted).

• Variable speed control

• SWL / WLL of 150kgs with a Factor of Safety of 12:1

• Overload / over-hoist protection

• Automatic rope travel limits

For a demonstration of the safety features and / or training in the safe use of manriding winches, contact NSL or Thern Lifting Services Ltd.

NSL – Always first – Often copied – Never bettered