As a facilities manager or building manager, you not only have a moral responsibility to look after your lifts to protect the safety of users, you also have a legal responsibility too. Under the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998 (LOLER), it is a legal requirement to have your lifts thoroughly examined on a regular basis, at least every six months for passenger lifts and at least every 12 months for goods only lifts, as well as immediately following significant changes or malfunctions.
This ‘thorough examination’ should not be confused with any other regular lift maintenance or inspections that you carry out, as it has a specific set of requirements that must be met. According to the LOLER specifications, the thorough examination must include the following:
- landing and car doors and their interlocks
- worm and other gearing
- main drive system components
- governors
- safety gear
- suspension ropes
- suspension chains
- overload detection devices
- electrical devices (including earthing, earth bonding, safety devices, selection of fuses, etc)
- braking systems (including buffers and overspeed devices)
- hydraulics.
The regulations stipulate that these thorough examinations should be carried out by what is described as a competent person. They will be able to accurately assess the safety of the lift, bearing in mind the position, frequency of use, age and overall condition of the lift, as well as the potential loads that will be carried.
Sheridan Lifts can supply experienced lift engineers to undertake your thorough examinations for you, backed by a full range of lift services to correct any problems the examination finds. So make sure you stay on the right side of the law on lifts by booking your LOLER thorough examination today with Sheridan Lifts, the nationwide lift experts.