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Brick Grab Safety Procedures

ALLMI has recently highlighted important safety-related procedures concerning brick grabs.  Technical Manager, Keith Silvester, comments “One of our members, Kinshofer UK, is reiterating these issues in relation to their own product and asked us to help them disseminate the message.  However, the requirements are not necessarily brand specific and so, as always, we would encourage any users of brick grabs to check the manufacturer’s instructions and adopt the necessary safe practices.”

To avoid any malfunctions in the hydraulic circuit and ensure maximum clamping force is applied, procedures should include the following:

• If the brick grab has not been used for a significant period of time (e.g. overnight), a functional test of the hydraulic system, consisting of two full movement cycles, should be carried out before lifting any load (note that this becomes increasingly important during cold weather conditions).

• When in use, to ensure maximum clamping force is applied to every load, cylinders should be fully pressurised and held for at least two seconds (four seconds if the load is wet) after the brick grab is fully closed and before lifting.

• For storage, brick grabs should either be completely open, completely closed with cylinders pressurised (this must be adopted if stored in a free-hanging position), or clamped to a load with cylinders pressurised.

For a full copy of the communication on this subject, please contact ALLMI.