What is the purpose of inspection equipment?

To ascertain whether work equipment can be utilised, adjusted, and maintained appropriately, inspection equipment is available. Prior to any deterioration posing a risk to health and safety, it should be discovered and corrected. To guarantee safety, not all work equipment requires formal inspection; in many cases, a brief visual check before use is adequate. But any equipment that poses a major risk to one’s health and safety due to improper installation, reinstallation, deterioration, or any other condition needs to be inspected. Risk assessment should be used to decide whether inspections are necessary and how frequently they should occur. If your risk assessment finds any considerable danger (such as the possibility of a major harm) to operators and others from the equipment’s installation or usage, you should inspect the work equipment. The examination’s findings should be documented, and this documentation should be preserved at least until the equipment is subjected to another inspection. There is no requirement that records be preserved in writing, but if they are, they should be held securely and made available to any enforcing authority upon request. Use caution when using work equipment that needs to be inspected unless you are certain that it has already been done.

Things inspection equipment covers:

This will depend on the kind of work equipment used, how it is used, and the environments it is exposed to. The decision should be made after thoroughly considering all manufacturer’s recommendations and conducting a risk assessment. It may also be beneficial to seek the counsel of others, including trade associations, consultants, and other published sources of health and safety guidance. The focus of an inspection should be on the safety-related components required for the proper operation of work equipment; in some circumstances, this may entail testing or disassembly. However, not every safety-critical component on a specific piece of work equipment may need to be inspected every so often.

An inspection’s scope might vary, as the following examples show:

  • rapid inspections before usage (eg electric cable condition on hand-held power tools, functional testing of brakes, lights on mobile machinery)
  • checks each week (eg presence of guarding, function of safety devices, tyre pressures, and the condition of windows, mirrors and CCTV on mobile plant)
  • more thorough checks that are performed every few months or more (eg general condition of a ladder, close examination of a safety harness, portable appliance testing)