Where do I find regulations for Overhead Cranes?

OSHA 1910.179 is the main source for your overhead crane regulations. All other forms of regulations were either written to clarify or expand on the existing OSHA 1910 regulations. These regulations cover definitions of cranes and it’s components, general requirements, cabs, footwalks and ladders, stops, bumpers, rail sweeps, and guards, brakes, electrical equipment, hoisting equipment, warning devices, inspections, testing, maintenance, rope inspection, handling the load, and other general requirements.

CALOSHA Title 8 was written by the California OSHA as a supplement to the OSHA 1910.179 standards. CALOSHA over-rides all OSHA regulations that contradict one another. The California OSHA made these regulations because certain parts of the OSHA 1910.179 they felt were not stringent enough so they wrote a more stringent set of standards to protect the users of this equipment. Obviously this is lawful only in the state of California. If your state has its own OSHA department then you may have similar supplements to OSHA 1910.179. Here you will find similar regulations that are in OSHA. You should look here first when you’re in the State of California. If you don’t find it here then go to OSHA 1910.179. Operation, Testing, Maintenance, and Inspections of overhead cranes are the three big amendments that CALOSHA made to the OSHA regulations.

ASME B30 was written to expand on monorails and under-running cranes which is not specified in OSHA 1910.179. ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers) B30 were written for Cableways, Cranes, Derricks, Hoists, Hooks, Jacks, and Slings under the accreditation by ANSI (American National Standard). ASME B30 covers general construction, installation, inspections, testing, maintenance, operation, and definitions of monorails, under-running cranes, and its components. ASME B30 over-rides OSHA 1910.179. If you are found in violation of an OSHA regulation that contradicts ASME then you do not get fined.

CMAA 70-2004 (Crane Manufacturers Association of America) are specifications for top running bridge and gantry cranes including multiple girder cranes. These specifications were written by crane manufacturers to promote a standardization of cranes and equipment. This does not only spec manufacturing recommendations but also technical procedures. The CMAA Specification number 70-2004 has six main sections.

1. General Specifications

2. Crane Service Classification

3. Structural Design

4. Mechanical Design

5. Electrical Equipment

6. Inquiry Data Sheet and Speeds

You would look into NEC 610.31, and 430.101 through 430.113 to get the specifications for electrical disconnect regulations. You could also look into NFPA 70E for De-contactors for maintenance purposes which would include hazard analysis, voltage testing and auxiliary disconnects, mechanical interlocks, flash boundaries, and PPE.

If you have any questions or need further assistance please let me know and I will do my best to provide you with the information that you request. I hope this has been helpful.

Gantry Crane Collapse

I found this video a long time ago. I never posted it because like the Harland and Wolff accident I really wanted more information. I researched online and could not fine anything on this following accident. This accident is of a gantry crane falling down in the winter outside and it almost hits a nearby person in a car. I have no idea where it is, nor do I know why it happened. If anyone knows please fill me in and I will add it to my posting. I think these videos of accidents are very valuable in learning what can happen if the operator is not trained or the equipment is not periodically inspected and preventive maintenance is not performed when it needs to be. This guy barely survived with his life. It appears to me the crane fell because of lateral force on the legs of the gantry. Now it is possible that this was caused by a load swing, or a component on the crane giving out. It is hard to tell without some kind of information. The crane does not even come into the screen until it has already fallen. It is very hard to tell what took place. It is however a good video clip of a gantry crane accident so I thought it should definitely be on my blog. If you have any ideas about this as well, please share them with me. I will post any corrections to this video as I find them. I just wanted to get it up online while it was still available.

Harland & Wolff Accident

I wanted to post this accident in the past but I never did because I wanted more information. Did anyone die? How did it happen? It is often hard to find out those answers because private companies do not have to report an accident if no one gets hurt. Unless someone is killed it is easy to keep the information from getting out to the public. This occurred at Harland & Wolff in Belfast on April 4th 2007. No one was killed in this accident. This is the same shipyard where the Titanic was built. There are 5 cranes in the shipyard. They have two Goliath cranes. One nicknamed Goliath and the other Samson. Goliath was built first in 1969, Samson was built in 1974. They span 140 meters (460ft) with a lifting height of 70 meters (230ft). Each has a capacity of 840 metric tons, or 926 short tons. So combined they can pick up 1600 metric tons or 1852 short tons. They are complete monsters. The crane that fell was a Henson 60 metric tons (66 short tons) crane. It stood 25 meters (82ft). The filming was taking from atop of the neighboring Henson crane. It is said that when the crane fell it came only within a few feet of the neighboring crane. I would think that a shipyard as big as this one would have an anti-collision system installed that would prevent such a collision. As the tower crane comes into the path of the gantry crane they should make it so that it automatically stops the gantry from moving in the direction of the tower crane. Since no one was killed then I imagine then that the tower crane was empty. This would mean to me that someone parked the crane in that position. Why would they park it in the path of the crane? There should also be a safety mechanism that does not allow for shutdown of the crane if it is in the path of the Gantry. In this age of technology there is no need to not have it. The price to install one on a crane would be minimal.

Crane Accidents

OSHA 1910.179B(6) states that

only designated personnel shall be permitted to operate a crane covered by this section.

Designated means selected or assigned by the employer or employer’s representative as being qualified to perform specific duties. ASME B30.2-3.1.1 states that

cranes can only be operated by qualified personnel.

The biggest questions I hear from customers is, what is qualified personnel? ASME is very broad with its definition of personnel and makes it hard to decipher the ASME regulation. However if you read further into the ASME codes it gives you its definition of qualified personnel. If you refer back to ASME B30.2-0.2 it states that

a qualified person is a person who, by possession of a recognized degree in an applicable field or a certificate of professional standing, or who by extensive knowledge, training, and experience, has successfully demonstrated the ability to solve or resolve problems relating to the subject matter and work.

So basically this is just telling you that to be a qualified personnel you need to be properly trained and have the experience, and show that you are fully capable of operating a crane. Training is the key to operating the crane properly. Just because somebody has operated a crane for 10 or 15 years it does not make them qualified. They need the knowledge to go with the skill. Even the experienced operator can learn from a training course. Many accidents occur because the crane operator regardless of his experience has little knowledge of the fundamentals of crane operation. I have posted a few crane accidents that look as if the operation of the equipment was improper. This video shows the dangers of picking up a load and using the crane as a securing device. Cranes are designed to pick loads straight up and down only. They not meant to pull sideways. This is what can happen when you side pull a crane or shock load it. Both cases were done here. This next video is of a rubber tired gantry crane that crashed. I am unsure of the cause whether was an operator error or if this was a equipment failure. If anyone knows about any of these accident please let me know and I will update the post.

Limit Switches

When do you check a Limit Switch? Many people understand this regulation completely wrong. There are many others that think that they don’t need to check the limit switch, and of course others who don’t want to check it because they are worried about it failing. This of course is the exact reason why you should be checking. So when do you check a limit switch? Well, if you said daily you are wrong again. You should be checking it each shift! That is the correct answer. If your facility has more than one shift then it needs to be checked at the beginning of that shift. Checking it only once a day opens the door for something to potentially to happen because the next operator has no idea what was done on the first shift. So, please for your own good check the limit switch on the beginning of each of your facility’s shift.
Another idea that floats around that I hear when I visit my customers is that the limit switch needs to be tested under a load. That answer is absolutely false. You should never check the limit switch under a load. For that matter you should never check any part of the crane or hoist under a load. The only time a load should be on the hook during a test is during a load test and that should be done by professional crane technicians.

Many companies are very worried and tell their crane operators to skip the limit switch inspection. They worry that it may get stuck or does not work. I tell you if there ever is a time you want to find that out, it is during an inspection, you don’t want to find out while you’re making a vital pick. To inspect the upper limit you should be inching the load block into the limit switch. Do not go right into high speed. Go in slow speed or if you have a single speed hoist then jog the pendant so the load block is inched into the limit switch.
Many manuals will suggest you to go into high speed. Me personally, I leave that to the operator. You can after you jog it into the limit switch. However be prepared that the load block may not stop at the same point that it stopped when you jogged it into the limit switch. Just like a car, the faster you go the longer it will take to slow down; at least if you have a VFD that is how it would work. So be careful!

A second fable that exists in the crane world is pretty much the exact opposite of what I just told you. I have talked to many customers that think that they can use the limit switch at an operational device. When I say operation device I mean that they think they can use the limit switch every time they operate the hoist. There are many applications that would require the load block to reach its upper most limit in order to get the most height out of the load hook as you possibly can. However unless you have two limit switches on your hoist this is not allowed or recommended. A limit switch is designed as a safety device only; so constant operation was not applied to the engineering of the device. This can decrease the life of the limit switch since many are made out of plastic. If your crane is equipped with two limit switches than you should check with your overhead crane contractor to see if you can utilize the limit switch as an operating device.

You should be having a crane company come in quarterly, semi-annually, or annual depending on the usage of your crane. During this time it is a good time to talk to your crane contractor too see what they recommend for performing your daily, and monthly inspections. Depending on your crane you may want to inspect it differently from what I have suggested.

Understanding the Wire Rope The most important component of your crane is your wire rope. Therefore it is vital for you to understand the construction of a wire rope. If you know how your wire rope is made then you can properly inspect, and maintain it. It is easy to inspect if you know how to do it and what to look for. A wire rope is like a machine with all its components and make up. Here we will only cover the main points of a wire rope that will help you care for your wire rope. There are three main components of your wire rope. First you have your core (d). Your core is then surrounded by tiny strands (F) made up of several wires (E). When you’re inspecting your wire rope you do not need to rag the rope. Rag, is terminology that means to take a rag and wrap it around the wire rope and then operate the hoist so the wire rope feeds through the rag. This is left for the professional inspector to do. This can be dangerous if you have not done this before. The rag can tear out of your hands and you have the potential to cut your hand on a bad wire rope or even worse pull a body part into the drum of the hoist. DO NOT RAG YOUR WIRE ROPE. Save it for the professionals.

Per CALOSHA standards you should change your wire rope when you have 6 randomly distributed wires in one lay or 3 broken wires in one strand.

Another vital piece of information that you should know is how a wire rope is classified. Most wire ropes you will see on overhead cranes are 6X37. This means that it has 6 strands, and 37 wires per strand. The wires can fluctuate per strand and still be classified as a 6X37. According to Southwest Wire Rope it can typically run from 27 to 49 wires. There are several different classifications such as 6X19 which is the next classification down from 6X37 or even 6X61 which is the next classification up from 6X37. A wire rope is also classified based on the lay of the wire rope. A wire rope is either a right lay wire rope or a left lay wire rope. You can tell this by taking hand a grabbing the wire rope. If you take your left hand and wrap your hand around the wire rope and the strands are going in the same direction as your thumb then it is a right lay rope. Same as if you take your right hand and wrap it around the wire rope, if you’re the strands go in the same direction as your thumb then it is a left hand lay wire rope. When you order your wire rope you should be purchasing an OEM wire rope from your crane parts supplier. For your own information it is important to understand the types of lays in your wire rope. Most cranes will have regular lay wire ropes. However there are circumstances that you will find other types of wire ropes on your crane. If you look at a regular lay wire rope the wires are almost perpendicular from the lay of the wire rope. However on a Lang Lay the wires are going along the same pattern as the lay of the wire rope. Please see the below picture provided from tpub.com. They also list another type of lay which they call a reverse lay. I am more familiar with the term alternate lay. An alternate lay is when the wire rope switches back and forth from regular lay on one strand to Lang lay on the next strand. Again you will mostly be seeing regular lays on overhead cranes. It is good to know though that there are different types of lays of a wire rope. The core of the wire rope will either be made up of a fiber or it is made up of steel. If it is a fiber core it is listed as a FC. If it is a steel core then it is classified as an IWRC. There are benefits to both types of cores. A fiber core is more flexible and a steel core is stronger than the fiber core. It all depends on the use of the wire rope that would require a FC or a IWRC wire rope. Most cranes will have a IWRC unless it is a class A crane. Lastly you should familiarize yourself with lubricating your wire rope. Wire rope requires a periodic lubrication. The frequency is dependent upon the use of the crane, location of the crane, and the lubrication being used on the crane. You should be using a pliable type of lubricant. Do not use anything that dries on the wire rope. This does not allow for the entire wire rope to be covered in lube. You want to use a lube with a thick viscosity so it will reduce friction on the sheaves and drum, but not too thick that it does not get in between the strands of the wire rope. Most hoist manuals will tell you what type of lubricant to use on your equipment. It is best to follow the OEM guidelines. If you have a crane company working on your crane they will be using OEM lubricants on most crane components, however they may have a lubricant that they use for your type of wire rope. If you understand the above, you should go to your crane and see if you can tell what kind of wire rope you have and if it is lubricated or not. Ensure that the wire rope is being checked each shift before use, every month, quarterly, and annually. This of course is dependent upon frequency of use. Remember not all wire ropes are the same, and you cannot put any wire rope on a hoist. It has to be specified by the manufacturer. Now you understand the makeup of a wire rope and can properly identify a wire rope and you should when to change them. This will make your crane safer and more reliable.

What Not To Do With an Overhead Crane. Hanging from one is definitely on top of the list. I am not quite sure the point of this. Obviously it was a situation where the guy was trying to impress someone. Overhead cranes are never meant to pick people up. This is an obvious OSHA violation. If this character ever got hurt the company definitely would be fined. I would hope that this occurred after management went home. Someone hoisted this kid into the air and watched him do this. People who takes a crane for granted can get seriously hurt. You should never trust the equipment is always going to work. The more cautious you are the less likely a crane accident will occur. 73% of all crane accidents are caused by the operator. 26% are caused by the failure of the equipment. You should always familiarize yourself with your crane and the regulations that govern them. You can find this regulation in OSHA 1910.179.N.5. While any employee is on the load or hook, there shall be no hoisting, lowering, or traveling.