ideas*

The Council of Standards Australia, ME-005 Cranes Committee is currently updating AS2550.1 Cranes, hoists and winches – Safe use. The current standard was released in 2002, and the draft of the proposed revision which completed its public review period on 23 June has some significant changes.

Major changes to this edition include an extensive revision of the inspection and maintenance requirements in Section 7, and the addition of a new Section 9 regarding the assessment of major inspection.

For crane owners and managers the key changes are as follows:

• Periodic 3rd party inspections are now a mandatory requirement of the standard, with a maximum frequency of 52 weeks. The current edition calls for optional inspections with an inspection frequency of 1-3 years dependent upon crane duty.
• Crane owners are required to maintain crane duty records which are updated annually at a minimum. As part of the annual 3rd party inspection the design working period (DWP) shall be calculated from these records. This DWP calculation assesses the crane fatigue life and acts as a trigger for major inspections once the design life is reached.
• Aspects of the ISO 12482-1:1995 Cranes condition monitoring standard have been included in the draft standard. Most significantly this requires that a safety factor be applied to the crane duty estimation based upon the method of recording. For example if the crane duty is estimated based upon undocumented, estimated production of the site a 30% loading is required. Therefore automatic recording systems become attractive as they can significantly increase the design life of a crane.
• Some clarification on the requirements of 3rd Party Audits and Major Inspections

There are a number of other more subtle changes which may also impact your operations. If you would like to discuss the implications of the standard further please contact Mike Percy on 03 9763 4332.

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Posted July 15, 2010 by by Mike Percy