Andy Williams - LGH Operations Manager
Andy Williams first started working for LGH in 1985 and is currently the Operations Manager. In his 35 years of experience he has been on the innovating edge of many changes in the industry.
We spoke with Andy at LGH UK head office in Greater Manchester, UK:
‘The design of a lot of lifting equipment has remained the same,’ said Andy. ‘For example Minifor hoists, chain blocks and gantries. It is the materials used to make equipment which have developed, for example gantries used to be made predominately of steel but are now made of the substantially lighter aluminium, making them much more portable and user friendly.’
According to Andy, there are three main differences in the lifting gear used today compared with the same gear 35 years ago: efficiency, time and safety.
Efficiency
Because of new materials, lifting gear is now more efficient. General lifting equipment now weighs a lot less, and is a lot smaller than 20 years ago – this means that the equipment can lift far greater loads with more precise control than in the past.
Time
New technologies involved in lifting gear are real time-savers for the industry. Andy gives the example of Minifor & Tirak hoists , which used to be controlled by a wired control pendant, but within the LGH hire fleet are now wirelessly remote controlled – saving time in set up and in maintenance.
Safety
Another great use of new technology is the way that specialist chain blocks can now be fitted with a load limiter so they can’t pick up more than the designated safe working load. Wireless load links and digital load shackles also make up LGH’s armoury of safety equipment. They monitor to an exact degree the weight of what is being lifted.
We asked Andy what he sees in the future for LGH equipment. He’s excited to see developments in vacuum lifting and magnetic lifting becoming more readily available to construction projects in the UK.
If you have a question or comment for Andy, you can contact our team. You can read more about the way that technologies are influencing heavy lifting gear in our product pages.
