Over half of all overhead crane fatalities involved injuries from objects or parts falling from cranes.
To avoid this type of injury and fatality, OSHA created a list of guidelines regarding the use and maintenance of overhead cranes. OSHA compliance should be one of your biggest priorities to protect the safety of your workers.
Keep reading to learn more about how you can become OSHA-compliant and how crane inspection can help you save the lives of your employees.
How to Achieve OSHA Compliance
We’re going to jump right into how you can achieve compliance with OSHA. As you’ll see, there are only a few steps, but each one will require a lot of work. Keep in mind that putting in this work is well worth the effort.
1. Know the Standards
Before you can adhere to the standards, you have to know what they are. Take your time in reading through the OSHA overhead crane standards to see which ones apply to your particular business.
These standards will determine what you need to do for the rest of the process.
2. Set up Inspections
One of the most important things you can do to comply with OSHA’s standards is to have regular inspections done of your overhead cranes. There are two types of inspection schedules that you need to follow.
Frequent Inspections
These should be done on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis on all cranes that are in regular use. You’ll need to check that your cranes are working correctly and that all parts are in good repair.
Periodic Inspections
These inspections are done quarterly, bi-annually, or annually. In some cases, it involves carefully checking parts like brakes and fire extinguishers. It may also require a thorough inspection of cranes that are not in regular use.
3. Follow Manufacturer’s Recommendations
In your crane’s logbook, you should be keeping track of the manufacturer’s recommendations for every part of your crane. These will need to be inspected or replaced in different timeframes, so you need to know when to do these.
4. Perform Preventative Maintenance
In addition to inspecting your crane and parts, you also need to be performing routine maintenance on it. This will help keep everything in good working order and allow you to continue to comply with OSHA standards.
This is another area in which you’ll have to check for manufacturer’s recommendations to see how often parts need to be serviced and what needs to be done for them.
5. Ensure All Personnel Are Qualified
Every person that works in or around your overhead crane should have the proper certifications. OHSA requires that all crane operators have the appropriate training to reduce the chances of workplace accidents from happening.
Don’t forget to restrict access to cranes by using a keycard system and locking doors whenever possible.
Need an Overhead Crane Inspection?
Now you know the five things you need to do to ensure OSHA compliance for your overhead crane operation. As you can see, there’s a lot of work involved, but it’s worth it for the safety of your workers.
If you need an inspection to meet OSHA guidelines, ask us about our overhead crane inspection services.