PRODUCTS SUCH as bulk food stuffs, chemicals, wooden panels, building products, drums and barrels can all present problems when they need to be moved rapidly during production. Their weight means that employers immediately have to consider their responsibilities under the Manual Handling Operations Regulations to ensure employees are not injured managing heavy loads. This is where vacuum lifts are proving themselves in industries from vehicle manufacture to papermaking. Vacuum lifts take the form of suspended flexible tubes, often resembling an elephant's trunk, connected to a pump which creates a vacuum in the tube when the end (known as the head) is blocked by the object to be moved. The vacuum (or the difference between the air pressure inside and outside the tube) keeps the object attached to the lift and takes the weight of many items up to 350kg.
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