If your job requires heavy lifting, then you'll know that a sling is required to lift heavy loads. However, the different types of slings can be incredibly overwhelming, and when working in potentially dangerous conditions, it is vital that you use the appropriate safety lifting equipment for the job to minimise risk. Webbing Slings and Round Slings are two of the most popular sling types, but what is the difference between two? Which one should you use, and what are their benefits? We will discuss the pros and cons of both Polyester Webbing Slings and Round Slings, and find out ultimately which sling is right for the job, in today's blog post.

Webbing Slings 

Lifting Webbing Sling, Strops, 1 Tonne

Webbing slings are usually made from polyester, and are designed to lift heavy loads. Our range of polyester webbing slings in particular is suitable for loads from 0 - 6 tonnes. Webbing slings are flexible, lightweight and have a wide bearing surface, which helps protect the load you are lifting. Webbing slings are the most popular type of slings, and their stretchy characteristics help minimise shock loading problems. You'll more than likely find polyester webbing slings in the maintenance department of every manufacturing environment. As well as offering a range of webbing slings, we also offer a variety of hooks to support them too.

Round Slings 

3Tonne Roundsling Lengths From 0.5mtr to 6mtr EWL Available

 Round Slings are an endless loop of yarns, covered by a woven tubular jacket. Our range of round slings can lift anywhere between 1 to 30 tonnes, so naturally the round sling is a preferable option if you have to lift a load exceeding 6 tonnes. All of the load-bearing polyester yarns in the round slings have a protective polyester sleeve, ensuring product durability and safety when lifting heavy loads. Each of our round slings has a different weight capacity, so make sure you're ordering the correct product for the weight limit you require to avoid any potential risks. We also offer a variety of lifting hooks to complement our range of round slings. 

3 tonne JOKER (SLING) HOOK Grade 80

So there you have it! Webbing Slings vs. Round Slings. Round slings are preferable for heavier loads, but with lighter loads, it's up to your personal preference which sling to go for, though webbing slings seem to be the most popular. Remember to check the weight capacity of any of our lifting slings before purchase - each sling has a different weight limit and this is essential for safety when lifting heavy loads.

If you need any advice or information, simply call 0808 123 69 69 and one of our team will be more than happy to help. 

It's hard to overstate the importance of good-quality load restraint products. Ratchet straps, bungee cords and the like are most commonly used to secure large loads on HGVs and other vehicles, and as you can imagine, the consequences of failing to properly secure a large load can be grave indeed.

Take, for example, this story from the Daily Mail:

"A river of beer flowed for several hundred metres down this German motorway after a juggernaut crashed, spilling 25 tons of crates on to the road."

Had somebody been a little more thorough with the load restraint procedures, all that beer might have been saved. And if you're not a beer person, perhaps these rather alarming YouTube videos will convince you:

It's easy to laugh at videos like this, but load restraint is a serious matter: heavy loads falling from lorries can, and often do, cause serious injury and worse.

That's why we're imploring organisations everywhere to use the proper load restraint products at all times. SLG's StrapOn range is perfect for the job - we have a huge range of ratchet straps, bungee coards, load binders, and everything else you could possibly need to secure heavy loads before travel.

Before anything else, we'd like to wish all of our customers a very Happy New Year! We hope that you all enjoyed the festive period, and that you're looking forward to all that 2015 has to offer.

The last couple of months have been particularly hectic for the team here at SafetyLiftinGear - we've been busy opening not one, not two, but four new depots across the United Kingdom. In addition to our headquarters in Bristol, we now have locations in London, Cardiff, Bridgwater and Leeds.

With this in mind, we are thrilled to introduce you to our quartet of newly-appointed depot managers...

John Sutcliffe - Depot Manager, Leeds
(Note the assortment of chainblocks, slings, and other items in the background!)

Steve Clare - Depot Manager, Cardiff

Lee Smalldridge - Depot Manager, London

Steve Bowtell - Depot Manager, Bridgwater

Contact information for all five SafetyLiftinGear depots can be found on our Contact page - simply select the depot that is closest to your location.

No matter which of our depots you get in touch with, you are sure to get an outstanding service from SafetyLiftinGear! Click here to return to our homepage and browse our full range of products.

Before anything else, we'd like to wish all of our customers a very Happy New Year! We hope that you all enjoyed the festive period, and that you're looking forward to all that 2015 has to offer.

The last couple of months have been particularly hectic for the team here at SafetyLiftinGear - we've been busy opening not one, not two, but four new depots across the United Kingdom. In addition to our headquarters in Bristol, we now have locations in London, Cardiff, Bridgwater and Leeds.

With this in mind, we are thrilled to introduce you to our quartet of newly-appointed depot managers...

John Sutcliffe - Depot Manager, Leeds
(Note the assortment of chainblocks, slings, and other items in the background!)

Steve Clare - Depot Manager, Cardiff

Lee Smalldridge - Depot Manager, London

Steve Bowtell - Depot Manager, Bridgwater

Contact information for all five SafetyLiftinGear depots can be found on our Contact page - simply select the depot that is closest to your location.

No matter which of our depots you get in touch with, you are sure to get an outstanding service from SafetyLiftinGear! Click here to return to our homepage and browse our full range of products.

If you need to purchase an electric hoist, it's important to pick the right one for the job - using an insufficient or inappropriate hoist could have dire consequences for you and the people around you.

With this in mind, here is a short, helpful guide to SafetyLiftinGear's assorted electric hoist products:

• Weight Limit - Perhaps the most important thing to look at when buying an electric hoist is that hoist's weight capacity. Some heavy-duty hoists can lift loads of a tonne or more, while other electric hoists are only capable of managing 2-300kgs at a time. Be sure to check the weight limit before reaching the checkout.
  
  
• Voltage - Different places will use different operating voltages. For example, American power outlets usually operate at 110 volts, and so you would need a 110 volt hoist in this circumstances. Elsewhere, you may have to use a 240 volt outlet, in which case you'll need a 240 volt hoist (a 110 volt hoist would be damaged by any voltage above 110).
  
  
• Motor - Most of our electric hoists use a single phase motor. This is sufficient for most applications, although we do also supply three phase hoists for particularly demanding jobs.

If you have any further questions about our electric hoist range, give SafetyLiftinGear a call on 0808 123 69 69 or email sales@safetyliftingear.com.

Health and safety regulations can sometimes seem like they were designed just to inconvenience people, rather than to save their lives. This impression isn't helped by the journalists who seem to take great pleasure in writing about absurd 'elf and safety' stories that make the whole practice look like a joke - trees being cut down for no good reason, people being ordered to remove their Christmas decorations, and so forth.

But, in spite of all this, health and safety is there for a crucial purpose: to keep people safe from harm. It isn't hard to quantify the importance of this; for every cringeworthy story about 'health and safety gone mad', there are half a dozen about somebody who was seriously injured or even killed by H&S oversights. If, for example, you were to Google height safety (something of a speciality for the SafetyLiftinGear team), you'd be rewarded with the following horror stories (all of which are from the last week or so):

• A man in Kettering punctured a lung and broke several bones after falling more than 13 feet from a recycling cabin onto a concrete floor. His employers were fined £9,000.
  
  
• A construction firm in Berkshire was recently fined £10,000 after a local resident photographed the firm's employees working on a roof without anything standing between them and a fall of almost 20 feet.
  
  
• Another £10,000 fine was handed out to a Cheshire-based homebuilder last week after a plasterer fell through an unguarded opening and fell nearly 10 feet to the floor below, cracking two vertebrae.

As you can see, poor health and safety practices really are everywhere, and it's high time for businesses like those mentioned above to sort it out.

For starters, then: if you or your employees are ever carrying out any work at height, ensure that the correct height safety equipment is in place. As we've seen, this could prevent some serious injuries, not to mention some major fines.

We sell a variety of lifting slings here at SafetyLiftinGear, but our polyester webbing slings are certainly the most popular. Webbing slings are lightweight and versatile, but no less strong for it; they can bear extremely large loads and help you to lift these loads in a safe, secure manner.

Now, as with most of the items in SLG's Lifting Equipment section, each of our polyester webbing slings has a different weight limit. This is obviously a very important factor - if the sling you purchase is insufficient for the loads you are lifting, your safety and that of people around you cannot be guaranteed. Maximum weight is clearly identified in the name of each sling (e.g. 5 Tonne Webbing Sling), so be sure to check this before purchasing.

Did you know that we also sell hooks for our lifting slings? We do, and as with the slings themselves, each hook has a different weight capacity. For your convenience, the hooks and the slings are colour-coded, so it's easy to buy a hook and a sling with the same weight limit; for example, our 3 Tonne Sling is coloured yellow, as is the 3 Tonne Sling Hook.

Once again, the consequences of using the wrong hook can be disastrous, so please ensure that you are buying a hook that matches your webbing sling. It's the safest way to go!