An ideas competition launched by the concrete industry to improve the handling safety of wall elements gathered over 50 concrete proposals. The real breakthrough is still to come.
In October 2025, the Finnish Concrete Industry Association announced an ideas competition open to everyone, the aim of which was to collect new ideas for developing safety related to the lifting of wall elements.
"Attachment and removal of lifting hooks have been identified as problematic from a safety perspective, and no solution has been found within the industry. The idea competition was launched specifically to find completely new perspectives on the problem, so-called out-of-the-box thinking," says the CEO of the Concrete Industry Association. Jussi Mattila.
Wall elements are lifted from the lifting eyes at the top of the element. Attaching and detaching the lifting hooks to them involves a safety risk, as the worker has to climb to the level of the top of the element to attach and detach the lifting hooks. The risk of accidents is increased by the fact that the lifting operations are repeated over and over for each element. They are first transferred from the formwork to post-processing, then to the factory warehouse, from the warehouse to the vehicle and from there finally to the construction site, where the elements often also have to be temporarily stored.
"The safety problem related to attaching and detaching lifting hooks is a tough nut to crack, as finding a more functional method than the current one is limited by many boundary conditions. For example, in Southern Europe, a method is used where the lifting point is brought either to ground level or to the other end of the element by using extension cables or slings in the lifting loops," Mattila states.
However, according to Mattila, this is not possible in Finland, as the elements want to be stored under the roof, and the lifting height of the bridge cranes is not sufficient for this solution.
"For the same reason, it is not possible to use storage solutions that require a lot of floor space. Both of these were submitted in several competition proposals. Similarly, it is not possible to bring the lifting points lower, i.e. to the end or flat surfaces of the elements, because the lifting hooks cannot be attached or removed," he says.
“The competition jury had to conclude that despite the large number of proposals, no breakthrough idea was found that would provide a sufficiently functional solution for lifting wall elements,” said the chairman of the jury, CEO of VaBe Oy. Markus Lehtinen says.
The jury ended up highlighting five proposals that, in the jury's opinion, had the most potential for further development. Of these Aleksi Auramon, Eetu Lahtinen ja Mikko Viljakainen The proposals made relate to various control arms that enable remote control of the lifting hook, Amos Ahola the proposal concerned the innovative design of the lifting lugs and Seppo Makinen had come up with a new type of articulated lifting boom. The jury decided to award these five proposals with a prize of €2.000 each for further development of the proposals.
“We hope that further development of the proposals will produce new ideas for improving the lifting safety of wall elements,” Lehtinen states.
Background information about the ideas competition
The Finnish Concrete Industry Association launched an ideas competition to improve the lifting safety of wall elements in mid-October 2025.
The competition task was to come up with an idea and develop a new way to attach lifting hooks to both ends of the element safely, without the risk of the worker falling or otherwise, and preferably in a way that would provide good work ergonomics. The new method had to be suitable for attaching hooks to as many types of wall elements as possible. The new method could be related to, for example, lifting parts or details of the element to be lifted.
The competition jury consisted of:
- Markus Lehtinen, VaBe Oy, Chairman
- Benjami Alapuranen, YBT Oy
- Eero Hynynen, Lujabetoni Oy
- Rene Ståhlström, Ansion Cement Plant Ltd.
- Jarno Suodenjoki, Consolis Parma Py
- Teemu Teno, Construction Concrete and Element Ltd.
Jussi Mattila from the Finnish Concrete Industry Association served as the jury's secretary.
More information
Jussi Mattila, CEO, Betoniteollisuus ry
Tel: 0400 637 224
e-mail: jussi.mattila@rt.fi