Safety concerns raised by WernerCo over mixing tower components

Leading supplier of access towers, WernerCo, is highlighting the serious safety risks associated with mixing product components when building towers.

This follows concerns being raised in the industry over the practice of mixing components from different manufacturers when erecting towers. As a result WernerCo, which manufactures the marketing-leading brand BoSS, is urging people to be aware of not only the safety risks but also the dangers around building a non-compliant structure.

Towers should comply with specific standards, which give approval the overall tower structure rather than specific components. When combining components from different manufacturers, a new structure has been created that has not been tested to EN1004:2004 and, therefore, does not comply.

Sophie Ellam, Product Manager for BoSS, commented: “Although it may appear that all access towers look the same, and components may be similar to each other, the actual characteristics and performance of the components can be very different.

“It is not common practice for manufacturers to share performance and strength data. That means rigorous testing, calculations and manufacturer assessments would need to be carried out in order to determine the safety and reliability of every conceivable component mix. Not only is this impractical it’s not something BoSS carries out, meaning liability will lie with those who authorise the build of the towers if a fault was to occur in a scheme where a mix of components from different manufacturers was used.”

It is always recommended that mobile access towers conform to EN1004:2004, which is the European Standard ensuring builds meet minimum safety requirements.

Sophie added: “Mixing tower components is a practice that we’d strongly advise against as you can’t guarantee the safety of the structure. Most brands will offer product liability insurance on their components and by mixing different elements this may cause it to become invalidated.”

ABOUT BOSS
BoSS^® offers one of the widest ranges of high quality access towers available anywhere in the world and arguably the no.1 range of tower available today. Working to a multitude of heights, and across both aluminum and fibreglass, BoSS Towers offer you a range of work at height solutions for any situation.

ABOUT WERNERCO
WernerCo is a privately owned, fully-integrated, international manufacturer and distributor of climbing products, fall protection equipment and jobsite, truck and van storage equipment. WernerCo has manufacturing, warehousing, sales and distribution facilities in the United States, Australia, Canada, China, Mexico, Vietnam and the United Kingdom.  WernerCo’s international headquarters is in Schaffhausen, Switzerland and it operates under the Youngman, BoSS, ABRU and Werner brands throughout Europe. For more information visit www.wernerworldwide.com.