New A-plant Guide to Hand-arm Vibration of tools

A-plant's new Hand-arm Vibration Product Selector is the most comprehensive in Hire Industry and meets Health and Safety demands from industry bodies.

A-plant's new guide complements their award winning HandS and Training literature including the industry-leading Site Safety Pack.

A-Plant has published the new Hand-Arm Vibration (HAV) Product Selector, providing a guide to the vibration levels of and advice on the use of a wide range of powered tools from drills and breakers to brushcutters and hedgecutters.

The new guide meets a demand for this type of literature as companies react to pressure applied by industry bodies such as the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to assess and minimise HAV in the workplace.

HAV is vibration transmitted into hands and arms when using hand-held powered equipment.

Too much exposure to vibration can cause injuries to hands and arms known as Hand-Arm Vibration Syndrome (HAVS) or its more common name of Vibration White Finger.

A-Plant is committed to reducing the effects of HAV and for this reason has teamed up with a number of leading suppliers including Hilti, Makita, Macdonald Air Tools, SPE International, Wacker, Belle, Stihl, Paslode and JCB to offer the most up-to-date and accurate results possible in the HAV Product Selector.

Its simple yet modern design and layout allows the product selector to be comprehensive yet easy to use, listing some of the most popular products hired from A-Plant.

Various factors influence levels of HAV, so the guide provides comprehensive coverage for each tool with data including the weight, noise, vibration level, dust exposure (where applicable) and applications for the tool.

Using the HAV Product Selector, the user can select the appropriate tool for the job whilst reducing and monitoring the effects of HAV.

The guide gives values for what is believed by the HSE to be the safe time limit for use of the tool called the Exposure Action Value during which time it can be used without any additional controls in place, together with the Exposure Limit Value, which is the absolute maximum level of use with the necessary controls being in place.

In addition, the HAV Product Selector provides productivity data so that exposure can be equated to the number of applications undertaken, even when undertaking tasks with different tools.

Typical of A-Plant's continued commitment to best practice in health and safety, the HAV Product Selector includes a section on Alternative Methods allowing the user of the selector to view an alternative method for a specific application, however it should be noted that the HAV Product Selector is intended only as a useful guide and full risk assessments and investigations must always be taken when using tools and their varying applications.

Back to top