Why Bucket Liners? - Alliance Equipment Company

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Why Bucket Liners?
Polyethylene bucket liners are an added expense to the aerial device owner. They are also pieces of equipment
that need to be maintained and tested periodically. Why, then, does Alliance Equipment Company, Inc., continue
to sell more bucket liners each year? The reason is simple. BUCKET LINERS SAVE LIVES.
Many people believe that they are safe from an electrical accident because they work out of a fiberglass bucket
at the end of a fiberglass boom. The fiberglass boom prevents the completion of a circuit to the ground through
the aerial device. However, a tree or guy wire is also a ground and contact with either can still complete a circuit.
DO NOT rely on the fiberglass bucket to protect the operator from an electrical accident. The fact is very few of
the fiberglass buckets in the field today have any dielectric protection at all.
Even if people didn’t drill small holes in buckets to drain water (which they do) and even if manufacturers didn’t
cut holes in the bucket wall to add steps (which they do) and even if the buckets were certified dielectrically
when they left the aerial device manufacturers’ plants (most are not), the fiberglass bucket would still not provide
a sound dielectric barrier for very long. While in the field, most buckets are subject to impacts, abrasions, saw
cuts, etc. from their first day of use. They lose whatever dielectric protection they may offer very early in their life
cycle. The polyethylene bucket liner offers the protection to the lower body that some people mistakenly believe
they get from a fiberglass bucket.
The linear low density polyethylene used in making our bucket liners has a very high resistance to impact damage
even in temperatures to -90 degrees Celsius. Its high dielectric strength allows a relatively thin wall liner to
provide a 50kV barrier. FOR THOSE TIMES WHEN THE BUCKET CONTACTS AN ENERGIZED CONDUC-
TOR, THE BUCKET LINER CAN BE A LIFE SAVER.
The bucket liner works very much like a lineman’s rubber gloves. It provides a barrier to the passage of electrical
current through the body. Of course, like a pair of gloves, the bucket liner does not protect those areas which are
not covered and it does not work if there is a hole in it. The bucket liner should be dielectrically tested in accordance
with ANSI standard A92.2-1979 on a periodic basis.
Alliance Equipment Company, Inc., carries bucket liners for over 30 styles of buckets in stock. For about
$200.00-$600.00, you can provide the bucket operator protection from a serious or potentially fatal accident.
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