Sunday, August 13, 2017

Things You Must Know About OSHA Crane Inspections

By Scott Baker


Cranes are machines equipped usually with wire, hoist ropes or chains and sheaves which could be used to lift and lower heavy materials and move them horizontally. They are using simple machines to create mechanical advantage allowing more load to be carried that humans cannot do normally. Industries such as construction, transportation, and manufacturing use them for different purposes.

Because of their different uses, they could get worn down or damaged when used regularly and might result into an accident. This is why frequent OSHA crane inspections must be done to assure the safety of your workers and the optimal condition of your machine. Doing this would also provide your employees with a more productive environment.

This is required by the government through the OSHA agency that incorporates several industries standards like ASME, NEC and ANSI. A qualified inspector with proper training should do this in reducing accident and failure of equipment. Having them inspected helps in making the legal fees affordable, whenever you need it due to accidents, because inspections were performed by qualified professional.

Your equipment will become more reliable and would break down less which will result to an increase in productivity. A study has noted that safety related defects were reduced to sixty to ninety five percent in the first year after your machine were started to be inspected regularly. They could even use an inspection program with predictive maintenance to increase reliability more.

Hooks, wire, hoist ropes or chains need daily examination done by an operator while monthly one is done which is more thorough with documentation. If you only use your crane in normal service, they need annual inspection only while heavy use would need twice a year. Four examinations every year is needed for severe service which means they were used on abnormal environments.

The abnormal environment that might be included are adverse weather exposure, hazardous environment, corrosive fumes, atmosphere laden with dust or moisture and high or low surrounding temperature. They will designate a qualified professional in determining if the conditions were hazardous during inspection. They would decide also whether disassembly is required for further examination.

Crane inspectors should have at least two thousand hours of experience related directly to functional testing, modifying, repairing, servicing and maintenance of cranes. They would not be allowed to do this duty under any circumstances if they have not received proper training. They must have the knowledge of codes and regulations applicable to the equipment that will be inspected.

Safe practices in operating cranes, federal, local and state standards and codes, and codes in design and safety are areas included in their training. They must understand terminologies for writing documentation procedures and reports, and better communication. The use of these various words should be learned also to understand better their meaning.

Owners are responsible for load testing the equipment and should be done after installation that means your system is complete. Though they were tested already before being shipped because of industry standard but should be performed again still. Your own workers would not be the only ones affected by these inspections but those around the work area too.




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