BrakeMate helps beat health and safety risks
Premier Pits’ workshop equipment range includes the BrakeMate product, designed to help move heavy brake calipers, hubs and discs without the need for manual lifting.
The brake disc assembly on heavy commercial vehicles, buses and coaches can weigh up to 70kg, says Premier Pits; and lifting such weights can often lead to injuries which are not only painful for affected employees, but also detrimental to employers through lost time and compensation claims which can range from £10,000 to £30,000.
BrakeMate has been designed as an elevated service platform for servicing heavy vehicle brake disc assemblies; it eliminates the majority of manual lifting during the disc brake maintenance process and substantially reduces service time, says the company, resulting in both time and cost savings.
It also enables a single user to complete the whole process, rather than requiring two operatives, thereby allowing other jobs to be completed more efficiently.
The product is said to eliminate heavy lifting in awkward positions under the wheel arch, and to ensure all parts remain aligned when splitting the hub. Handling of hubs is made easy due to the rotating service trolley, says Premier Pits, while hub realignment is rendered safe and simple.
A BrakeMate unit was introduced into the workshops at Manchester Airport, for use when maintaining its fleet of buses.
After two years in use, Paul Hatton, motor transport workshop manager at Manchester Airport, believes the product has assisted considerably in ensuring health and safety in the workshop.
“BrakeMate has alleviated the need for awkward, heavy lifting – a great invention for an age-old problem,” Paul commented.
Videos of the product in action, demonstrating how it can help protect technicians from injury, are available at the website.
