Wind turbine generator service lifts: risk of serious injury

Health and Safety Executive – Safety Notice

Issue

There’s a risk of serious injury or death to workers using, or working near, wind turbine generator (WTG) service lifts. Duty holders must ensure that control measures are in place to prevent workers from coming into contact with moving lift cars or parts.

Outline of the problem

HSE investigation of an incident at a WTG found that the design of landing gates and guarding did not eliminate or reduce access to dangerous moving parts of the lift car as it operated with external one touch controls. It was possible to reach the lift car and become crushed or sheared against the gates.

Equipment must be supplied with adequate means of preventing contact with parts of machinery that could lead to injury. Inadequately guarded service lifts are likely to be considered by HSE to create a serious risk to users.

Action required

Given risks involved from any retrofit programme on a WTG, it may not be appropriate to replace access gates and/or landing guards, but operators must assess and adopt suitable hierarchical control measures.

Review control measures

Operators should immediately check that the necessary control measures are in place for all WTG service lifts.

If the control measures are not in place, you need to withdraw the lift from use.

Those responsible for supply, installation, use, inspection, servicing, maintenance and for thorough examination of WTG service lifts must ensure that:

  • landing gates are positioned and constructed to prevent access to dangerous moving parts, that is far enough away so that they are not reachable, and they are interlocked to prevent lift operation unless closed
  • if positioned close to a carrier, the gates have either no openings or they are limited to prevent contact with any dangerous moving parts, with glass or fine mesh guards for example
  • there are means to stop the movement of an empty carrier at each landing, where that carrier can be sent or called from another level and there are reachable dangerous moving parts with no other means of preventing access
  • all locking gates and car doors are fully operational and in good repair

Manage risk

As part of your risk management and control arrangements you could consider:

  • using ‘hold to run’ controls within a carrier to protect the operator/passenger
  • how to protect people on a landing and other levels when a lift is moving, do they have means to halt the movement of the lift in an emergency? Can they reach dangerous moving parts of the carrier, whilst they are not in control of it?
  • how large openings in and around landing gates can give access to dangerous moving parts, or themselves become a shearing/crushing trap as the carrier raises and lowers, can you eliminate these by infilling or reducing openings or moving them further away?

Managing risk includes effective maintenance and inspection of equipment, you should:

  • review your risk assessment to ensure the appropriate number, frequency and nature of inspections, thorough examinations and tests is appropriate, you should check regulations and manufacturer’s manuals
  • ensure periodic inspections, measurements and checks include those items listed by the manufacturer in their maintenance and service schedule
  • ensure checks and inspections are undertaken only by those competent to do so

Please share this safety notice with any anyone who may have this equipment or operate WTG service lifts.

Suppliers

When supplying lifts for new WTGs, follow British Standard BS EN 81-44 ‘Safety rules for the construction and installation of lifts – Special lifts for the transport of persons and goods. – Part 44: Lifting appliances in wind turbines’.

When designing landing gates to prevent access to moving parts during send and call operations of the lift follow British Standard BS EN ISO 13857 ‘Safety of machinery. Safety distances to prevent hazard zones being reached by upper and lower limbs’.

If you are unable to completely guard moving parts, then provide sufficient emergency stops on landings in addition to in the car.

New safety standard

The new British Standard, BS EN 81-44 ‘Safety rules for the construction and installation of lifts. Special lifts for the transport of persons and goods. Part 44 Lifting appliances in wind turbines’, sets the benchmark for the safe design of service lifts and associated safeguards.

Manufacturers of WTGs manufactured after the date of publication should refer to this standard when conformity assessing their WTG, as it establishes the ‘state of the art’ in relation to compliance with the essential health and safety requirements for this element of their machinery, as set out by The Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations 2008

BS EN 81-44 should improve the safety of new WTG’s. It also sets a benchmark standard for existing service lift installations to aim for where this is reasonably practicable.

 

Suppliers of WTGs should consider updating their operating instructions in relation to current risks associated with integrated service lifts not designed in line with BS EN 81-44. They should also work with users to improve the safety of their machines, where possible.