You might be surprised by the sheer variety of customers we cater to here at SafetyLiftinGear. Naturally, we take a lot of orders from the construction industry, but building sites are far from the only places where SLG products can be found!

Our heavy-duty garden carts are an excellent example of this. They are designed to carry heavy loads over uneven terrain, and while they obviously have their uses on construction sites (e.g. moving bricks, tools, and other equipment from A to B), these uses are just the tip of the iceberg. Here are three other places where our garden carts do their share of heavy lifting:

• Gardens and garden centres. As the name suggests, our garden carts are perfectly suited to garden work. Our dump cart is particularly handy for moving garden waste and compost around.
  
  
• Farms. We frequently supply garden carts to the agricultural sector - the long-handled design of our utility carts makes them far easier for farmers to use than traditional wheelbarrows (largely because you don't have to lift up our carts to move them around!)
  
  
• Music festivals. Our garden carts start to look a lot more trendy when you realise that they've been used to help some of the UK's biggest musical festivals to run smoothly! A lot of work goes on behind the scenes of your favourite festival, and SLG's LoadSurfer carts make it that much easier to move everything around.

Click here to see more of SafetyLiftinGear's garden carts.

Heavy lifting can be dangerous, frequently resulting in injuries and accidents when done improperly. Here, courtest of the experts at SafetyLiftinGear, are some tips to help you stay safe next time you're lifting heavy objects:

• Plan your actions. Don't jump head-first into lifting a heavy item - think about what you're doing first. What route are you planning to take? Would it be possible to push or slide the load instead of lifting it? Can you lift it alone without putting yourself in harm's way, or do you need to call for help?
  
  
• Bend your knees. When you bend down to pick up the object in question, make sure you bend at the knees instead of at the waist. This will put the weight on your legs, rather than putting your back at risk.
  
  
• Get a good grip. Before you rise to a standing position, ensure that you have a good hold on the load that will not slip as you move.
  
  
• Keep it close. Don't hold the load at arm's length; instead, hug it close to your body (especially as you rise from picking it up).
  
  
• Take it slowly. Never rush when lifting and moving a heavy load - that's how accidents happen!
  
  
• Don't twist your spine. Twisting your body while carrying a heavy item can do a lot of damage - ensure that you're facing in the same direction as your feet at all times.
  
  
• Put it down properly. Don't simply drop the load when you reach your destination - find a suitable space to deposit the item, then bend at the knee and place it down gently.

One final tip: know when you're beaten! Some loads are simply too heavy to be lifted by manpower alone, and in situations like these, you may need to use specialist lifting equipment (e.g. slings, hoists, chains) to get the job done. Don't try to show off by lifting something that could get you hurt!

Heavy lifting can be dangerous, frequently resulting in injuries and accidents when done improperly. Here, courtest of the experts at SafetyLiftinGear, are some tips to help you stay safe next time you're lifting heavy objects:

• Plan your actions. Don't jump head-first into lifting a heavy item - think about what you're doing first. What route are you planning to take? Would it be possible to push or slide the load instead of lifting it? Can you lift it alone without putting yourself in harm's way, or do you need to call for help?
  
  
• Bend your knees. When you bend down to pick up the object in question, make sure you bend at the knees instead of at the waist. This will put the weight on your legs, rather than putting your back at risk.
  
  
• Get a good grip. Before you rise to a standing position, ensure that you have a good hold on the load that will not slip as you move.
  
  
• Keep it close. Don't hold the load at arm's length; instead, hug it close to your body (especially as you rise from picking it up).
  
  
• Take it slowly. Never rush when lifting and moving a heavy load - that's how accidents happen!
  
  
• Don't twist your spine. Twisting your body while carrying a heavy item can do a lot of damage - ensure that you're facing in the same direction as your feet at all times.
  
  
• Put it down properly. Don't simply drop the load when you reach your destination - find a suitable space to deposit the item, then bend at the knee and place it down gently.

One final tip: know when you're beaten! Some loads are simply too heavy to be lifted by manpower alone, and in situations like these, you may need to use specialist lifting equipment (e.g. slings, hoists, chains) to get the job done. Don't try to show off by lifting something that could get you hurt!

First of all, let's clarify the difference between hydraulic jacks and other types of jack. You may well have a jack in the boot of your car, but this is probably a man-powered device, designed to lift your vehicle in the event of a breakdown or emergency.

Hydraulic jacks, on the other hand, tend to be found in more industrial environments, such as garages and workshops. These heavier-duty products, while still primarily used on cars and other vehicles, have a far wider range of uses than standard mechanical jacks - for example, hydraulic jacks are sometimes used to lift building foundations during construction projects.

But how do hydraulic jacks work?

Some of the hydraulic jacks that we sell here at SLG can lift loads of 30 tonnes or more - clearly, this kind of lifting power would be difficult to produce with sheer manpower!

So how do the jacks do it? There's a lot of complicated scientific theory behind hydraulics, but here's a simplified explanation:

• Inside the jack's hydraulic cylinder, powered pumps apply pressure to a reservoir of oil.
  
  
• Because liquids cannot be compressed, the oil is pushed through the cylinder and into a larger chamber.
  
  
• Thanks to Pascal's Law (we told you there was a lot of science behind this stuff!), the pressure in the wide chamber remains the same as it was in the narrow one. This pressure is what forces the jack - and, by extension, whatever you're using the jack to lift - upwards.

Does that make sense? This is an extreme simplification, of course, and different types of hydraulic jack (bottle jacks, cylinder jacks, etc.) work in slightly different ways. Still, this should give you a rough answer to your question!

First of all, let's clarify the difference between hydraulic jacks and other types of jack. You may well have a jack in the boot of your car, but this is probably a man-powered device, designed to lift your vehicle in the event of a breakdown or emergency.

Hydraulic jacks, on the other hand, tend to be found in more industrial environments, such as garages and workshops. These heavier-duty products, while still primarily used on cars and other vehicles, have a far wider range of uses than standard mechanical jacks - for example, hydraulic jacks are sometimes used to lift building foundations during construction projects.

But how do hydraulic jacks work?

Some of the hydraulic jacks that we sell here at SLG can lift loads of 30 tonnes or more - clearly, this kind of lifting power would be difficult to produce with sheer manpower!

So how do the jacks do it? There's a lot of complicated scientific theory behind hydraulics, but here's a simplified explanation:

• Inside the jack's hydraulic cylinder, powered pumps apply pressure to a reservoir of oil.
  
  
• Because liquids cannot be compressed, the oil is pushed through the cylinder and into a larger chamber.
  
  
• Thanks to Pascal's Law (we told you there was a lot of science behind this stuff!), the pressure in the wide chamber remains the same as it was in the narrow one. This pressure is what forces the jack - and, by extension, whatever you're using the jack to lift - upwards.

Does that make sense? This is an extreme simplification, of course, and different types of hydraulic jack (bottle jacks, cylinder jacks, etc.) work in slightly different ways. Still, this should give you a rough answer to your question!

It's easy to ignore health and safety regulations, especially when every newspaper in the country is printing stories about "elf and safety" and how it's ruining everybody's fun for no particular reason. In the past few months alone, we've seen selfie sticks, Christmas decorations, wedding rings, and sorts of other things banned by business owners and local authorities who cite health and safety as an excuse.

But these stories are absurd, and they should not be taken as a reflection of real H&S laws, which are in place to save lives and prevent injuries. These laws are tremendously important, and a few farcical news stories shouldn't permit you and your employees to ignore genuine H&S measures like safety harnesses and fall arrest systems.

Here, then, are three excellent reasons to abide by health and safety regulations (and height safety regulations in particular):

1. You could be prosecuted. An engineering company in South Wales was recently fined £20,000 after a welder fell two metres and ended up on crutches for nine weeks. And it won't necessarily stop with a fine; other offenders have served time in prison.
   
   
2. You could be prosecuted, even if no accidents occur. In a previous blog post, we told you about a Berkshire firm who received a £10,000 fine after somebody took a photograph of their unsafe work. Nobody was hurt, and no accidents occurred, but the company was fined anyway because they had endangered people's lives. Which brings us to reason #3...
   
   
3. People could die. Really, this should be the only reason you need. If you don't observe basic health and safety laws - which, as we mentioned above, are simply there to protect people - then people could lose their lives, and you'll be responsible for it.

Visit SafetyLiftinGear's Height Safety department now and make sure you have all the safety equipment you need.

Safety Harnesses are quite simply an essential part of safety equipment for anyone working at height. SafetyLiftinGear's range of safety harnesses are high-quality, durable, comfortable and even somewhat stylish - as far as safety harnesses can go, that is! A safety harness from SafetyLiftinGear is the Rolls Royce of height safety equipment, and you might get a little attached to yours! Not convinced? Take a look at our humorous G-Force Harnesses video, and let us know what you think.