Safety Alert: Sheared Bolt Problem Comes Up Again

A personnel lift at a Coker refinery was recently found to have some bolts sheared off in the swivel area, similar to the recent JLG 860SJ lifts found in the Northwest earlier this year and reported in the August 29, 2007 AGC at a Glance.

In both cases, the bolts were located under a cover plate. In the Coker case, a worker performing a pre-operational inspection noticed a bolt fall off the basket connection at the boom. Further examination revealed that all eight of the bolts were broken off. The machine was tagged out, and mechanics were notified. No identifiable cause of the damage was noted.

IMPORTANT LESSON: The incident points out the necessity of pre-operational tests. All companies using personnel lifts are urged to “take two”---two minutes to make sure the equipment is in good condition before using.

Details on both incidents:
JLG Sheared Bolts (1.37 MB PDF)
Coker Safety Gram (918 kb Word Doc)

Posted September 26, 2007

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