UPS specialist banks on lifter

The battery rooms at the London location contains 738 batteries, each weighing 54kg, stored on five levels on six open racks up to 2.6 metres high.

The job entails lifting out the old batteries one at a time, so that they can be put onto a trolley by two people at floor level. This will be done 500+ times over the next 17 weeks of this project. Once all 738 batteries have been lifted down, APS will install 720 of a different type of battery, each weighting 57kg.

Lift Safe supplied APS with a bespoke battery-operated 90kg lifter with an extended mast so that the batteries could be easily reached for removal and re-installation. The lifter also has a specially-designed reversible roller-edged lifting platform, enabling the battery to be easily loaded onto and off the platform.

“Lift Safe’s equipment has provided many benefits,” said Colin Smith, DC battery specialist at APS, who co-designed the site-specific lifter with Lift Safe and the project works on site. “It has improved safety; it takes away all the effort, and allows our engineers to work for longer without getting too tired and burning themselves out. It saves a lot of time and eliminates the ever-present risks associated with manual handling, such as musculoskeletal disorders and repetitive strain injuries. It also looks very professional on site, so people can see we are doing the job properly. The lift will pay for itself in the long run, as we will use it on other jobs when this one has finished.”

Lift Safe’s technical manager David Winterbottom added: “APS needed a robust, stable lifter that was light and modular, so their engineers could easily disassemble and reassemble on site, and had a high lift capability. The lifter needed to do a minimum of 125 lifts over an eight-hour working day on one charge, so Lift Safe included a heavy duty battery pack and spare batteries back up.

“This lifter’s unique geared spindle drive lifting mast is much more robust that the usual chain and belt drive lifting masts and has the added advantage of an anti-slip clutch braking system, to prevent load slip in the case of overloading.”