Don’t suspend your crane safety inspections
Conducting routine crane inspections may identify safety issues that can be corrected before an incident occurs. Besides daily use checks that operators perform, a more comprehensive annual inspection must be done to identify mechanical problems that aren’t easily found during a pre-use check. Make sure that your cranes, as well as any subcontractor’s cranes, get inspected as required.
At one of my past jobsites, an operator reported that while lifting a load with the crane, its main line abruptly stopped hoisting up the load. After a mechanic performed an inspection, he found an issue with the crane’s pinion gear. He found that its inside diameter was machined outside its original specifications. This caused added stress and cracks to form on the gear, making the main line stop abruptly.
This type of issue wouldn’t be visible during a pre-use check by an operator or oiler. A thorough hands-on inspection must be performed to find mechanical hazards like this. OSHA’s Cranes and Derricks in Construction Standard, 1926.1412, requires a qualified person to perform this inspection annually.
Training for operators and oilers assigned to inspect cranes should include:
- Troubleshooting safe practices,
- Transporting the load properly (as close to the ground as possible), and
- Preventive maintenance inspections.
Verify that your subcontractor’s cranes are inspected annually. No matter whose crane it’s, any crane failure can be injurious or fatal to workers on the jobsite. It’s a best practice that an independent third-party crane expert performs this inspection, not a worker employed by the company. At the job where the pinion gear issue was found, all cranes with pinion gears suspected of being cracked were immediately taken out of service. These gears were sent for metallurgical analysis, which found several had incorrect internal diameters. This information was immediately sent to all other jobsites across the company.
All affected cranes eventually had their pinion gear replaced. A follow-up safety alert and training focused on troubleshooting cranes that fail to lift or lower while in use was sent to all jobsites. Had the operator or oiler, in this case, tried to move the main line further, or free the load, the pinion gear may have stressed to the point of failure, potentially causing the main line hoist and load to fall to the ground.
Key to remember: Review your overall crane safety program and take comprehensive steps to ensure that cranes at your jobsites are safe to use.