The Victoria and Albert Museum in Kensington opened in 1852 and is home to one of the world’s largest collections of art and design. It houses a permanent collection of over 2.2 million individual artefacts. We were thrilled when they contacted us and asked if we could design and manufacture a bespoke lifting cage.

The cage would be used for transporting items from their first floor to the ground floor storage facility by means of a platform hoist. A draft method statement was initially drawn up to describe how lifting operations were being carried out and then a site survey was conducted so we could see exactly how to best create a lifting cage that would work in unison with their existing lifting platform.

The cage was manufactured using these specifications:

• Height from ground to hoist hook: 2745mm.
• Allowing for the fact that along the aperture the hoist sits off centre: 120cm left of hook and 192cm right of hook.
• Measurements of the aperture: 290cm x 142cm. This was measured factoring in elements of trapdoor that reduce aperture. Cage may need to reduce to ext. 1350 to accommodate this.
• We would provide LOLER regs with a load test certificate.

Besides manufacturing the custom cage, we also supplied a new 4 leg chain sling as the existing chains on site were unsuitable. A new lifting sling would also be supplied with the cage. We calculated that 1650mm long legs would reduce the overall lifting height to 2675mm. The overall height had to reduced so that the chains would be set at a 45 degree angle, so as not to come into contact with the floor. A 1800mm long leg chain with a 45° lifting angle would be required with the maximum permissible load, the tension force would amount to 5.398+08 N/m^2.

It was a very interesting and satisfying project and one we were glad to have had the opportunity to be involved in. The outcome has been completely successful and we are proud to have provided our services.

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