Why is a BMU examined every six months?
Because it lifts people. LOLER Regulation 9 puts equipment that carries persons on a six-monthly thorough examination rather than the twelve months that applies to goods-only plant. The height involved does not change the interval, but it does change the consequence of getting it wrong, which is why BMU examinations tend to be the most thorough on a building's programme.
Which standard is a BMU examined against?
BS EN 1808, which is the standard for suspended access equipment — building maintenance units, suspended cradles and temporary suspended platforms. It covers the design calculations and stability criteria the machine was built to, its construction, and the examinations and tests it is subject to in service. That matters to a duty-holder because a thorough examination judges a machine against the criteria it was designed and built to, together with the manufacturer's own data, rather than against a generic lifting-equipment checklist. Façade access plant has its own failure modes and its own arrangements for suspension ropes, secondary safety devices, overload detection and emergency descent, and those come from the standard rather than from LOLER.
What if the machine predates the current edition?
Then it is judged against what applied when it was supplied, which is the same position as an older lift. Standards are revised, and a machine built to an earlier edition of BS EN 1808 is not unsafe by virtue of its age — it was lawfully supplied to the standard in force at the time. What the examination asks is whether the machine is in safe working order against the criteria it was built to, and whether anything about its condition, its installation or the way it is now used has moved it outside them. "Does it comply with BS EN 1808" is therefore a question about which edition, and a more useful question is whether the secondary safety arrangements still function as designed.
What is examined on the machine itself?
The roof unit: slew and luffing mechanisms, jib structure and welds, outreach limits, the travelling carriage and its track where one is fitted, counterweights and their securing, and the structural attachment back into the building. Structural fixings matter disproportionately here because nothing else is holding the machine to the roof.
What is examined on the cradle and ropes?
The cradle structure, guardrails and toe boards, suspension points, and the hoist and secondary or safety rope with its arrestor device. Wire ropes are examined along their length for broken wires, corrosion, deformation and diameter reduction, and at the terminations, which are where deterioration concentrates and where it is hardest to see.
What safety devices are tested?
Overload protection, upper and lower limits, the emergency stop, the secondary brake, and the rope-failure or overspeed arrestor that is meant to hold the cradle if the primary suspension lets go. A functional check of the arrestor is the single most important thing on the list, because it is the device that exists solely for the worst case.
Does the examination include the anchors and harnesses?
Not automatically, and this is where programmes fall apart. Personal fall-protection equipment and the building's anchor points are separate items with their own examination requirements. A BMU examination that stops at the machine can leave the harnesses and eyebolts the operatives clip to entirely unexamined. Ask explicitly what is in scope.
What should the report say?
It should identify the unit and its safe working load, record the date of this examination and the next due date, and set out any defect with its severity and the timescale for repair. Where a defect involves an existing or imminent risk of serious personal injury, Regulation 10 requires a copy of the report to go to the enforcing authority as well as to you — on a façade access machine, that is a realistic outcome rather than a theoretical one.
Sources & Further Reading
Independent inspection, same-day report with photos
We reply within one business hour, and the inspection is carried out by an engineer with hands-on experience of that kind of plant.