Goods-only hoists

How does Goods-only hoists work, step by step?

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   Step 1: Decide whether goods-only is the right answer

   The question is simple: can the workforce reach the working floors without a hoist. On low-rise projects, on housing, and where the permanent lifts or stairs are usable, the answer is often yes, and a goods-only hoist then carries the material demand at a fraction of the cost of a passenger machine. On tall projects the usual arrangement is both, with the goods hoist taking the material flow so the passenger hoist is not tied up with pallets at shift change. The decision is made from the material volumes and the workforce numbers, not from the hire rate alone.

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   Step 2: Choose the type and the mounting

   Light scaffold-mounted hoists suit small loads, low rise and short durations, and are erected on to a scaffold that has been designed to carry them. Rack and pinion goods hoists on their own mast suit real material volumes and full building heights, and are founded and tied like a passenger hoist. Transport platforms occupy the middle ground. The choice follows the load size, the height and the duration, and it is made early because a scaffold that has to carry a hoist is a different scaffold from one that does not.

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   Step 3: Design the base, the ties and the supporting structure

   Whatever the mounting, something has to carry the hoist. On a mast machine that means a designed base and designed ties into the permanent structure. On a scaffold-mounted machine it means a scaffold designed explicitly for the hoist, with the additional ties, bracing and loading the design requires. The temporary works designer produces the arrangement, the structural engineer confirms whatever the permanent works has to take, and the design is signed off before erection. Retrofitting a hoist to an existing scaffold without going back to the designer is one of the most common failures in this trade.

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   Step 4: Enclose the travel and gate every landing

   Because the hoist carries goods and not people, the whole point of the installation is that nobody can be in it or reach into it. The travel path is enclosed for its full height, every landing has an interlocked gate that cannot be opened unless the car is present, edge protection runs either side of each landing, and the ground level enclosure is secured. Where materials are loaded and unloaded, the arrangement lets that happen from outside the car. This is designed in at the start rather than added after the first near miss.

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   Step 5: Erect, examine and hand over

   Erection and any extension is carried out by the supplier's competent teams, following the sequence for the machine, with the project providing the exclusion, the power, the access and the crane where one is needed. Before first use the installation is thoroughly examined by a competent person and handed over with records, and the same happens after any significant alteration. Signage goes up at the same time: what the hoist may carry, the loading limits, and the fact that no one rides. Controls are positioned so the operator can see the landing being served.

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   Step 6: Run it as part of the material chain

   A goods hoist only performs if the ground level and the floor level work with it. Materials arrive at a loading bay, are broken down to loads the hoist can take, are moved to the hoist, lifted, and then distributed on the floor by trolley or pallet truck. Any weak link in that chain turns the hoist into a queue. Loads are restrained, oversize items are given their own arrangement rather than being forced in, and waste comes back down the same route rather than accumulating on the floors.

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   Step 7: Inspect, maintain and remove

   The hoist, its enclosure, its gates and its interlocks are inspected on a set frequency and after any interference by other trades, and the machine is maintained and thoroughly examined at the required intervals. Damage to the enclosure is treated as an immediate defect rather than cosmetic, because the enclosure is the safeguard. At the end of its use it is dismantled by specialist teams, ties and fixings are removed and made good, and the facade or scaffold behind it is completed to the agreed detail.