BOOST SITE SAFETY WITH VACUUM LIFTING EQUIPMENT

BOOST SITE SAFETY

WITH VACUUM LIFTING EQUIPMENT

In the pipeline industry, few elements of a job are more important than ensuring the team’s safety, with vacuum pipe handling equipment eliminating the majority of hands-on labour for workers.

Over recent years, there have been few innovations that have contributed to the improvement of safety and construction productivity in the pipeline industry as much as the handling of pipe using vacuum lifting equipment.

Global Equipment Services, in partnership with Pipeline Plant Hire, formed Global Pipeline Equipment – designing, building and supplying worldclass vacuum pipe handling solutions incorporating many patented features.

THE INDUSTRY’S CHALLENGES

For the pipeline industry, the process of moving the product during the manufacture, shipping, distribution, stringing and laying presents a number of challenges.

This is because the industry requires moving a typically heavy product between locations, which can not only be dangerous for workers if an incident unfolds, but damage to the product can also easily occur.

The process traditionally involves a number of workers attaching and detaching slings, pipe clamps and chains on and off the pipe to move it.

However, these challenges can be curbed through the adoption of vacuum pipe handling equipment, eliminating the need for hands-on work, working at height, climbing trucks and rigging loads.

Vacuum lifts also work extremely well during inclement weather, where ground crew fatigue can become a problem, and feature a plethora of new safety features, such as ‘ground only release’ in the quick hitch model.

EMBRACING SAFE SOLUTIONS

Global Pipeline Equipment’s key ethos and features are safety and productivity, this is due to vacuum pipe handling equipment removing personnel away from the pipe – reducing the risk of injury and dramatically reducing the cycle time for each pipe movement from minutes to seconds.

Pipeline Plant Hire has the largest range of vacuum lifting equipment in the Australian market, from small units used to feed poly pipe, to fusion welding machines lifting hundreds of kilograms and large units capable of lifting large diameter, high-pressure pipe weighing over 12t.

Global Pipeline Equipment can provide fully integrated solutions, such as an excavator fitted with a VacLift unit – mounted on the counterweight of the excavator to give maximum lift capacity.

The VacLift also has an attachment that can be used on a customer’s own machine using auxiliary hydraulics to power and control the machinery.

In addition, Pipeline Plant Hire has a large range of pipe diameter and material adaptors, beams, and shoes to cater for all project needs.

AUSTRALIAN-BASED

Global Pipeline Equipment’s vacuum lifts are designed by experts in the field who boast many years of first-hand experience in the industry.

With a combined 50 years’ experience in the pipeline and construction industry and a proven track record in Australia, Global Pipeline Equipment has a unique understanding of safety and reliability. It also has a fleet located in Australia and equipment designed and manufactured in house, making it easy to provide custom solutions if required.