ABSTRACT

Aerial jobs have been an essential part of construction across the engineering sphere. Jobs
undertaken above ones own height is termed as an aerial job. As such,technology had to
step in with solutions to this problem. Hydraulics,pneumatics and even material science was
employed to make this technology a success. Hydraulics and pneumatics contributed their
principles to the lift system whiles material science brought the idea is SCAFFOLDING. It
basically the used of strong materials such as aluminium or wood to construct a rising
platform where workers can stand to work on the side of buildings or large work-pieces like
a ship. Scaffolding has been an ancient technology for conquering aerial jobs be it at
construction sites,dry docks,road project and many other engineering endeavours. This help
workers to manually carry loads up the rising platform and also give the workers accessibility
in high rise portions of the working area.

Scaffolds are mainly employed by painters of high rise buildings, window wiper of sky
scrappers,sprayers at dry docks and aeroplane hangers. They are even employed to hold
weights of concrete during building construction and road construction. This was a brilliant
piece of engineering until the negative side of its effects was exposed. Aside delays in the
deadlines of the completion of projects

Over the past few decades modification of scaffolds have been trendy, with different
engineering companies coming out with what is termed as the best and safe work-tool for
manual workers to use.

BACKGROUND
The traditional conventional scaffold has been a piece of engineering which has served its
purpose over the years. It has been the main driving for behind engineering aerial jobs and
have had many construction works completed.but didn’t come with it downsides.
These downsides include;
 Improper safety measures when raising and dis mantling the scaffolding.
 Overhead electrical wiring and risk electrocution.
 Lack of guardrails to aid workers from falling off high heights
 Breaking of platforms and slipping of workers off the platforms.
 Overloading of these platforms from the heavy loads they are meant to carry.
 Deadline of projects not been met due to the delayed nature of working with the
conventional scaffolds.
All these are just a few challenges faced by the traditional scaffolds used in our dry docks
and construction sites. As engineers its our duty to solve existing problems by the aid of
observation research and experimentation. This project seeks to do exactly that and in the
end design,produce and fabricate a mechanised hydraulic lift to solve this problem.

Over the past few decades, engineers have produced designs to solve these challenges and
overcome gravity at the same time.
Some of these designs include the scissor lifts,boom lifts,telehandlers,aluminium scaffoldings
and other wooden structures to support the projects under construction and the work
pieces. Our project seeks to enlighten the panel on the challenges of the conventional
scaffolds and fix the problem. We are making reference to the REGIONAL MARITIME
UNIVERSITY construction site at the water storage area and other construction works.

PROBLEM STATEMENT
Many manual workers need a technology which is very versatile and mobile to be able to
complete aerial jobs. This technology has to have safety first and must be able to carry loads
up and down the vertical axis of a project. Manual workers at the dry docks and other
reputable construction site have put in orders to this technology and are awaiting final
clearance from the panel.

AIM
The aim of this project is to mechanise and fabricate a conventional scaffold at a lower cost
to the Ghanaian economy for dry docks and other construction companies.

OBJECTIVES
 Investigate and establish the challenges associated with the used of the traditional
scaffolds.
 To analyse the ease of the possibility of modifying the existing scaffold structure into a
mechanized designed one.
 Research,produce,design drawings of the mechanised scaffold.
 Fabricate the mechanised scaffold
 Test the scaffold for safe operations.

SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY
After the execution of this research of this project, the following are its benefits;
 Savings would be made on the renting of these scaffolds.
 Reduced labour cost.
 Jobs would be executed to meet expected deadlines.
 Reduced injuries and aerial job related accidents.
 It would be much easier to move heavy loads vertically upwards during carrying out
task.
 Local production of this mechanised scaffold would create jobs for the citizens

RESEARCH QUESTION
1. How effective is the system going to be at the end of the project?
2. What is the market for this system ?
3. How safe is this system going to be?
4. Is there an already existing market for this system?
5. Is the hydraulic system cost effective?
6. What are the principles involved to ensure that the hydraulic system functions
effectively/

SCOPE
The scope of this research is mainly targeted towards manual construction workers at dry
docks and construction sites . questionnaires wuld also be given to these people for data
findings.

LIMITATIONS
The limitations of this project include;
 Financial constrait
 Access to specialized parts of the whole project
 Deadline date of the project.