Is Your Lifter Made of Steel?

I make the argument loudly that anything supporting a load needs a rating. OSHA 1926.251 1-4 says it repeatedly. There is no exemption there for using slings. Further, ASME B30.20 notes that slings could be a part of a Below the Hook system. It also doesn’t exempt the ratings or design criteria when slings are utilized. It states clearly that only steel can be used for the structural members in the BTH guidance document that accompanies ASME B30.20. It’s in Chapter 1, paragraph 4. The only exception to this would be found in 1926.251 (a)(4) under a “Special Custom Design” which will involve an engineer, and a 125% load test. So if you have a plastic tote, or a wood box and you are lifting items in them, you should stop doing so immediately. If it doesn’t have a SWL, the rating is zero and it can’t be lifted even on straps unless it was empty with effectively the zero weight number as the SWL.

Just because we have been doing things for years doesn’t mean it’s safe. And this is the problem our industry faces. I worked for a crane erector that removed structural connections (6 out or 8 when I was there) on tower cranes. After I was gone, they decided it was ok to remove all eight and that practice would be fine. Conditions got bad one day and several people died. It’s an example of normalizing risk. In the case of lifters, the risk is also great, but we won’t see it until it’s too late. This is where being proactive is the choice we want to be making. If you are a contractor, lift director, rigger, or crane operator, you should be stopping with the practice of flying bins that aren’t rated, even if it’s being done with the use of slings. If you don’t know the SWL, the SWL of your lift will be zero. Don’t lift it.