Daily operations inside the workplace take a good toll on heavy machinery, especially overhead cranes and hoist equipment. Over time, this will inevitably result in equipment damage and subsequent breakdown if not tended to. This is why optimum and timely inspection and maintenance must be ensured in the case of cranes and hoists. It not only enhances operational productivity but also reduces repair costs and ensures that the equipment remains safe, and its operations are optimized. But the question remains, how often do we need to perform an inspection on our overhead cranes? Let us delve deep into the matter and find the answer to that.
Why is regular inspection essential?
Every business must prioritize worker safety, and hence inspections are a mandate. The frequency of inspections is also crucial in determining that the verified safety standards of the equipment haven't been outdated. It also ensures that the working conditions of the workplace are monitored properly and frequently enough. Ensuring the safety of the cranes goes a long way to ensure the safety of the persons operating them. It also reduces employer liability and helps avoid compliance issues with OSHA in the near future.
Different businesses differ in prioritizing their equipment costs and productivity. Out of service cranes causes equipment downtime that in turn results in lost production time and losses amounting up to thousands of dollars every hour. For many businesses, the inconvenience might not be such but minor ones. Regular and timely inspections can hence identify the deficiencies which would allow for planned repairs and hence prevent potential workplace and crane-related hazards, unprepared downtime, and fatal worker injuries. Any critical production business must treat timely inspection of their overhead cranes as a crucial investment.
How to ensure a good inspection?
Firstly, we must ascertain that the inspection arranged provides full value to everyone associated with the overhead cranes, including operators, workers, and the entire organization. This begins with ensuring that the persons performing the inspection are well trained and qualified themselves and that they invest sufficient time and effort for performing a thorough inspection of all the operating components and equipment. This would go on to prevent any contribution on their end to potential hazards and safety incidents in the future.
Having said that, only ensuring good inspectors might not suffice in this aspect. One also has to implement an OSHA certified schedule of frequent and periodic inspections whose frequencies are just suited to catch up with all the impending issues that might cause a production incident or a safety concern. It is also very vital that we understand the equipment we are dealing with and all the aspects that could contribute to the need for inspections and hence determine its frequency. A few of them are listed below.
Aspects that we should consider before calling for an inspection
- Age of the equipment
- Its maintenance history.
- The propensity of the equipment for breakage and the condition it is in.
- If any grabs or lifters are used while operating as such, cranes are under heavy and continual load and wear.
- The intensity of its usage is critical. If the equipment is used for three shifts a day, then the chances are that it will wear off quicker than the others. Also, overhead cranes that are lifting loads near capacity are working harder than others that are not. Hence the former ones require more frequent inspection than the latter.
- The environment of the equipment also determines its need for inspection. Craned operating in hostile environments and prone to more moisture, heat, or chemical exposure will experience more deterioration of its physical structure. Hence its mechanical components might require inspection frequently.
- Operator training goes a long way in ensuring equipment safety and productivity. If the operator isn't properly trained, he or she will more likely cause heightened stress on the equipment and violate conservative practices of operations.
How to effectively measure the frequency of crane inspection?
One of the best methods that have reaped great results for a long time is examining the severity and number of operational and safety deficits that have cropped up in between the most recent inspection and its previous one. For instance, if your crane is subjected to a periodic inspection in three months, and within that period, it witnessed one or fewer deficits, then the current inspection frequency is adequate for the equipment. However, if the deficits amount to two or more in that time frame, then it might not be your best bet. In such cases, decreasing the period of inspection and increasing its frequency would be the way ahead for optimizing your crane's performance and minimizing safety hazards.
We also advise managers to review the manuals provided by the crane manufacturers, which have recommended intervals for both service and maintenance. The manufacturer's recommended interval must never be increased, or else the liability factor for your crane multiplies.
Conclusion
Crane and hoist inspection are not much costly relatively, but the benefits one can derive from a timely inspection is priceless. Finding the optimum frequency of crane inspection correctly goes a long way in ensuring optimum performance levels and minimum levels of mishaps at the workplace.
