Rick van der Lelij, Operations Manager at Height Specialists, dropped in to PES to talk about the importance of safety and training beyond the legal requirements. It makes for interesting reading and it’s reassuring to know companies are more and more determined to keep their employees safe by doing more than the necessary minimum.
PES: Welcome back to PES Wind magazine. Thanks for talking with us. For the benefit of our new readers would you like to begin by explaining a little about the background of Height Specialists and the importance of the wind industry to you?
Rick van der Lelij: Height Specialists was founded 24 years ago and since then has grown to be one of the biggest IRATA companies in the Benelux region. With a staff of over 40 people employed full time, Height Specialists is a leading company in the use of rope access techniques, combined with industrial services.
We are also a fully certified IRATA training company. We work throughout the Benelux region, both onshore and offshore. During the last couple of years Height Specialists has started to shift its focus a bit more from oil and gas towards the wind industry. As a growing market the wind industry is potentially a great chance to expand in.
PES: Are you experiencing more growth in the market, both on and offshore?
RL: In general we are experiencing a growing market in rope access both onshore and offshore as the use of rope access techniques become more and more familiar.
Also in the wind industry, with a lot of inspection and maintenance work coming up we are receiving a higher number of queries about rope access and its possibilities than before.
PES: We have been hearing about your wind farm inspections, please can you tell us what types of inspections you offer to the customer?
RL: We offer a broad variety of inspections to our customers, which, all of course depend on the costumer’s needs and wishes.
We have set up several partnerships throughout the industry, combining our experience and knowledge of rope access with their experience and knowledge in fields such as:
Blade inspections
Blade repairs
Paint inspections – both Nace and Frosio
NDT inspections
Visual inspections with the use of drone technology.
